EU Defence Scheme Undermines NATO

Conservative Party, Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has warned that EU plans to create a central budget, and extend co-operation among member states on defence technology and research will undermine NATO as well as UK relations with the United States. 
 
“It will not just be technology. They will be looking for common European procurement, and once we get the Commission involved in that, then we are well on our way to having an integrated European defence policy,” he said. 
 
Dr Fox was commenting as it became cleat that next week's meeting of EU defence ministers at Innsbruck in Austria will discuss research and technology spending and the prospect of establishing a special fund under the auspices of the new European Defence Agency. 
 
Pointing out that this common agenda approach runs counter to the UK Defence Ministry's industrial strategy, and the Government's stated view that staffing levels of the EDA should remain low, the Conservative defence spokesman said: “This will be only the start. Once this budget is started, then they will be looking for more money.” 
 
And warning that the policy represented the thin end of the wedge, claimed that co-operation on technology would soon lead to an integrated defence policy. Dr Fox declared: “That diminishes Britain's relationship with the United States, it undermines NATO, and it is typical of a Government that talks very transatlantic when it is in Washington, but ultimately buys European when it has to deal with its French allies.”