Supporters of Brexit have disagreed with each other – sometimes quite vehemently – when it comes to trade issues. Which model shall we go for? WTO? Canada? Norway? Take your pick, but you’ll find someone equally committed to Brexit who will tell you that you’re wrong.
The focus of the Brexit debate has been trade, and no one would deny that our future trading arrangements with the EU and the rest of the world are an important consideration when it comes to life after 29 March 2019.
There are, however, other important issues related to Brexit which have received much less coverage. Our relation to the EU’s military structures is one of the most critical. On this subject, Brexiteers ought to be united – our Brexit should be a very, very hard one indeed.
As a member of the EU, the UK has rightly been highly sceptical about EU plans for closer military integration – at least, that is, until after the 2016 referendum.
You would have thought that, following the Brexit vote, the EU would have done two things. Firstly, stepped up its plans for closer military integration now the that member most likely to drag its heels is leaving. And secondly, frozen the UK of the discussion.
What has actually happened is rather different. The EU has indeed pushed ahead with closer military integration. But not only was the UK included in the discussion, but UK officials have been happy to sign us up to closer military cooperation with the EU. This has been done without most MPs even being aware of what was going on.
They are not alone. MPs from other member states have been equally shocked on discovering what their representatives have signed up to.
WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT HAS SIGNED US UP TO
So, what have we signed up to? We did not sign up to PESCO, the EU’s PErmanent Structured COoperation (note the word ‘permanent’). But we did sign up to five separate EU Council agreements between 14 November 2016 and 22 June 2017, relating to Federica Mogherini’s Security and Defence Implementation Plan and Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Defence Action Plan.
Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty makes our signatures to the current arrangements null and void on 29 March 2019. But both the EU and its supporters in the UK are keen for us to sign a new treaty which includes a commitment to involvement in the EU’s military ambitions. This must be avoided at all costs, or else our military independence will be compromised.
The EU will increasingly make decisions about defence, and the process of gradual integration into the EU military machine will affect a number of areas – ownership of assets, defence procurement, intelligence, asset development, budgeting and research, to name but a few.
BUT WHAT ABOUT BREXIT?
So why did we sign up to anything after June 2016, considering we are going to leave?
It appears that some civil servants were not only happy to sign on the dotted line, but actually want to keep us tethered to the EU after Brexit.
What about government ministers? They, including Prime Minister Theresa May, clearly have some very serious questions to answer.
When it became known that the UK had signed up to a number of structures within the EU Defence Union, the explanation given was that it was only a formality. We were leaving anyway, and so it was best not to show dissent. Once we left, anything to which we had signed up would cease to apply anyway.
This, however, is being economical with the truth. Let us be in no doubt. Senior figures in both Whitehall and Westminster wish to see us shackled militarily to the EU after 29 March 2019.
It is not too late to achieve the clean break which is an essential part of a genuine Brexit – indeed, it is vital that we do so. Cooperation with EU member states under the auspices of NATO is, by and large, very desirable. However, independence from the EU’s Defence Union is another matter altogether. Why should we be involved with the EU’s empire building?
The EU has claimed that if the UK pulls away from the EU’s defence programme, we would be isolated militarily. This is utter nonsense. Not only are we members of NATO but, free from the EU, we could conduct cooperative defence research and development projects with any partners we chose.
What is more, we still have an excellent military – although parts of it are seriously underfunded – and we are of course a nuclear power. The idea that by withdrawing from the EU’s defence programme we would be left weak and vulnerable is laughable.
FIGHTING FOR OUR MILITARY SOVEREIGNTY
Thankfully, these dangers are being highlighted by Veterans for Britain, a grassroots organisation set up to highlight the risks to the UK militarily if Brexit is compromised. Thanks to their campaigning, MPs are being made aware of the concerns expressed in this article. Many, sadly, are still unaware, particularly of the agreements signed since the Brexit vote and their implications for our future military independence.
We are heading for a turbulent period as Mrs May’s Chequers proposal comes under attack from her own MPs. We are thus still a long way from any final sign-off agreement, and there is everything to play for. But with trade issues still dominating the press coverage of Brexit, it is vital that these other areas are not swept under the carpet.
Brexit must mean military independence, or it will be no real Brexit at all.
[Ed: we re-publish this article which was first published in the CIB Bulletin with kind permission of the author.]
well the uk had better hope all the military sticks together and carries out that oath it is a insult to them to be even expected to be given orders by others in foreign lands .a act of treason against ones own country by them upholding it .they should only answer to nato which will be rode rough shod over if they do not put a stop to this happening .it said back along was in the plans to put their own people in there and then taking it over ..all this sending ours abroad is so they are not around to put a stop to uk being wiped out by others .junckter said the same when he went off on one of his rants in brussels in front of them all. this was all videoed and nf has shown it on his page .
Well said John Petley!
Might I add:
1) The EU has always aimed to turn itself into a United, State of Europe. Economic integration is a stepping stone towards this end.
2) Since there is little homogeneity of basic values amongst the different nation states – e.g Hungary, Italy today, versus Germany – a USE can only be held together by main force. Democratic agreement amongst such different peoples cannot be achieved, for there is not one demos or people, but several, each with their own different basic value systems..It can only be an iron fist in an iron glove.
3) The essence of any State’s power is the ability to use legal violence, against foreign powers, hence the need for an army, and also on its own citizens, so we have police, prisons, and criminal law to regulate this use.
4) The army can also be used against a State’s own citizens; in history it often has. Many European countries have seen tanks in their streets, in living memory. We in Britain, uniquely, have had no armed civil strife for centuries; we have forgotten that armed force is the essence of State power, and even have difficulty in visualising the very idea.We think it is all about public opinion, and winning elections. This only happens if everyone willingly accepts common rules. People only do this within a national group. West and East Germans came together, but Germans and Greeks will not.
5) While public opinion is fussing about trading arrangements, as John reminds us, the project for a unified EU armed force, including our own armed forces, is going ahead.
6) Also unnoticed is the stated intention of Mrs May to keep us in and under the EU Arrest Warrant, which trashes our Habeas Corpus allowing arbitrary arrest of anyone in Britain, their forcible transportation and lengthy months of imprisonment on no evidence, with no right to a public hearing during this time. And she declared in Parliament in June 2012 her willingness to “of course” allow lethally-armed Eurogendarmerie riot police “onto British soil”.
7) Once Brussels has its very own boots on our soil, our goose will be well and truly cooked. Think Budapest 1956, Prague 1968.
8) After 1600 years, since the Roman legions left, our islands will once again be governed from a place beyond or shores.
Torquil – Best post I’ve seen in a long time if nor ever and unfortunately this is exactly what is very likely to happen. The EU is the most evil and dangerous entity we’ve ever encountered, it makes the Third Reich seem like choir boys, we just haven’t seen it in its true glory yet but we will soon enough.
Theresa May and her fellow remainers are the face of the EU in our country, which is now in the most dangerous position that it has ever been in its history.
Wake up folks!
Flyer, thanks for your very kind words about my post!
The EU is more insidious than the Third Reich. But I wouldn’t say that the Nazis were “choir boys” compared to the EU. The EU has not gone as far as setting up extermination camps!
And while the Nazis said they wanted to exterminate their opponents and then proceeded to do just that, the EU overflows with “humanitarian” rhetoric, so might have some difficulty in actually setting up extermination camps. I must say though that when Verhofstadt gets going he does look rather frightening!
Joking apart, we need to be glad that the UK rejected the EU’s criminal code proposal Corpus Juris in 1999, so that they had to put it on the back burner for the time being. Brussels therefore lacks the teeth that it would like to have to impose its will on the “provinces”. It is therefore not yet a State. If it did have the teeth, the ECJ would doubtless have ruled our referendum “illegal” and Brussels would have sent in their Eurogendarmerie to stop it. The Spanish State does have the teeth to use against its rebellious provinces, and in effect it sent in its Guardia Civil to beat up Catalans who were trying to go to vote in their independence referendum last year. NB The Guardia Civil is Spain’s contribution to the Eurogendarmerie Force.
Yes I suppose choir boys was being a bit too kind. However, you knew where you stood with the Nazis, they goosestepped around in uniform, the EU as you say, is far more insidious, it espouses humanitarianism and altruism but it is a facade, I certainly believe. If the EU really were the humanitarian organisation that it claims to be, it wouldn’t have had to further its empire with the deceit and subterfuge with which it has done so.
As for the Nazis exterminating their opponents, well they had an army, SS, Gestapo and so on, the EU does not, but it is working very hard to obtain these things. Would you really trust the EU with its own army, military and secret police? I don’t think you would and if the EU gets these things, we’ll see the EU for what it is, it’s still early days.
I instinctively distrust and am revolted by the EU. People that know me really well say that I am uncannily perceptive and I’m very rarely wrong about people and events, the EU sends alarm bells ringing in my head and I’m more sure about this than anything in my life.
Torquil Despite Mrs May stating she wishes to keep us in the EAW framework Barnier has said that on leaving the EU Britain will be kicked out of the EAW because of the UKs desire to leave the EU’s court and free movement schemes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44532500
The “brains” behind this betrayal is a civil servant in the FCO – Andrew Lapsley.
Sorry his name is Angus Lapsley.
The Civil Servants are completely out of control and they’re just pressing ahead with their agenda regardless. Theresa May and the MPs are just hostages like the rest of us. The last person to have a handle on this was Mrs T and look what happened to her.
I’m not so convinced MPs are so ignorant of what is being done with our defence. I’ve written to a fair few of them about this PESCO EU Army.including Rees-Mogg. The only one to reply on this matter was Andrea Jenkyns and her response was guarded. I think it’s perfectly clear MPs from all the parties have been given specific orders from the whips office not to mention anything to do with defence matters and to deny EU military union is happening. Some have heard said there are no votes in defence is a half truth. What they mean is there are no votes in EU defence or EU military unification
The first job of our military forces is to defend this country, how can they do that if they are tied to EU forces? Also all service personnel take an oath of allegiance to the Queen that overrides everything else.
Its disgusting, but doesn’t surprise me