Ursula von der Leyen’s European Union wants to shackle the UK military to a ‘unified command’ structure which would enable Brussels to commit British troops in military operations, a former army officer has warned.
And Frederick Chedham fears recently appointed Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s push for closer ties with Brussels will see him use the British Army as a bargaining chip to gain “concessions” in other areas of the UK’s relationship with the bloc – something Brexit was “precisely” intended to prevent.
Ms von der Leyen, in common with national leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, has made little secret of her wish to see European armed forces integrated under a Europe-wide umbrella.
Former Lieutenant Colonel Mr Chedham, speaking in a week in which European Commission President Ms von der Leyen appeared to float the idea of Britain rejoining the EU, was deeply concerned at the prospect.
Referring to the EU’s so-called Common Security and Defence Policy, he explained: “The CSDP in itself does not imply the creation of an EU army. Such language can be dismissed as alarmist and fanciful, and rightly so.
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“However, both the EU and FDCO know there is no need for such a creation. The unification of command and control will achieve precisely the same effect and will be described using more subtle, less emotive treaty language.
“Nevertheless, voters should be under no illusion; the political and operational impact will be the same, constituting a significant transfer of sovereignty, including the political authorisation to commit and command British service personnel in operations, potentially in situations not in the national interest or to which the British people do not consent.
“If Brexit was about anything, it was about preventing precisely this.”
Turning his attention to the man who resigned as UK Prime Minister after the 2016 referendum which say Britain vote to leave the EU, he continued: “David Cameron has wasted no time since returning to public office as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Development, clearly outlining his intentions for closer alignment with the EU.
“His language is carefully veiled, referring to ‘international cooperation’, but a tweet from the EU’s European External Action Service (EEA) Secretary General during a visit to his FDCO counterpart, Sir Phillip Barton, revealed that ongoing cooperation is focused on the continuous development of the CSDP.”
Mr Chedham, Reform UK’s Defence and Security spokesman stressed that Ms von der Leyen has publicly defined the goal of CSDP as “the unification of EU Member States’ defence capabilities, including industrial capability and capacity”.
He added: “This declaration also confirms that political and operational control of mission planning and deployment will be centralised in Brussels under EU political direction.
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“Yet this comes at a time when the EU will announce record defence spending tomorrow yet this equates to only 1.3 percent of EU GDP – a long way short of the minimum two required by NATO. 22 out of the 27 remaining EU states are now falling short on their spending commitments to their NATO allies.”
All NATO members have pledged to commit a minimum of two percent of GDP to defence spending in order to continue to ensure the Alliance’s “military readiness”, Mr Chedham pointed out.
He said: “It is now evident that the Foreign Office has long been planning to leverage the United Kingdom’s substantial defence capability in broader negotiations with the EU to secure concessions in other areas of the relationship.
“The appointment of Cameron to the post gives political cover to these long held Whitehall plans. As the EU is now taking credit for EU defence decision making and spending, it now also needs to take some of the responsibility for a clear financial under-commitment to NATO.”
Meanwhile it was clear that EU mechanisms for political centralisation of defence – including policies, budgets and crisis response – were not having an adequate effect on EU participation in NATO, Mr Chedham suggested, something which he hoped individual members of the EU27 would “get a grip on”.
He warned: “Too much has rested on British and American taxpayers for too long.”
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