It’s coming: the EU Army. Through PESCO we’re participating, Brexit notwithstanding
Yesterday afternoon those of us who have signed up to receive the CIBUK newsletter were shocked to read that Ms Truss had signed up our country to join PESCO. There’s no announcement in our MSM which are again more interested in what the discredited Lockdown chief Hancock does in yon jungle (link).
Starting with the article published by CIBUK yesterday (link) we learned that the EU’s M Borrell announced our joining PESCO on Thursday. There was nothing in the papers yesterday, there’s nothing in the papers this morning. There is however the report in ‘facts4eu’ (link) where you’ll find worrying details – definitely worth reading in full, especially taking note of the dates.
It turns out that Brussels’ was ‘working’ on this while we were negotiating about finalising the Brexit Treaty. We old Brexit warhorses remember full well that one of our arguments was the desire of Brussels for a ‘EU Army’. PESCO was being talked about during the Brexit campaign in 2016.
The question arises: why has the government, why have the negotiators, why have the ‘Brussels correspondents’, not mentioned these ongoing talks? We recall that news items were always leaked, just as they are being leaked now. We also recall that the diligent research work undertaken and published by ‘facts4eu’ hardly ever found their way into the MSM.
Were “we” always destined to join PESCO, as the first step to re-join Brussels? Is that why M Barnier was so confident that we’d eventually rejoin? Were Mr Sedwill, Mr Oili Robbins and Lord David Frost totally unaware of these talks? Look at these dates:
“PESCO was set up in 2017 “to enable EU member states to work more closely together in the area of security and defence.” This permanent framework for defence cooperation allows the EU participating countries jointly to develop defence capabilities and invest in shared projects. “To date 25 EU Member States have undertaken the more binding commitments that form the basis of PESCO.” – EU Council, “Conditions for third-state participation in PESCO projects”, 27 Oct 2020” (link)
The EU PESCO statement was published on 27th October 2020. Next, the Express was reporting from that Prague Meeting on the 7th October this year where Truss and Macron were said to’ve become ‘friends’:
“The Prime Minister has been warned not to allow the UK to be dragged into an EU Army by accident after she signed a military deal this week at Emmanuel Macron’s European Political Community (EPC) summit in Prague. The decision to go into part of the PESCO has alarmed some Brexiteers who fear it could undermine the UK’s sovereignty.” (link)
On the same day there was another report in that paper (link). I can’t help but think that this was meant to calm down those pesky Brexiteers who were so alarmed, by stating that we ‘only’ joined one of those PESCO ‘initiatives’ – nothing to see here, don’t take note of the implications (my emphasis):
“The UK has received the green light to move troops swiftly through Europe today. EU officials have unanimously approved the British Army’s application to a Dutch-led initiative that already permits the same for other NATO nations. PESCO involvement will allow the UK to expedite armed forces delivery, but further integrates the country with the bloc.” (link)
Do we really believe that in the two years since the EU announcement nobody in Brussels worked on PESCO? That nobody knew nothing about nothing? That nobody leaked nothing to nobody? Really? Of course the EU welcomes us with ‘open arms’, enticing us to rejoin tiny baby-step by tiny baby step! It’s ‘only’ a PESCO initiative we’re joining – nothing to see here!
Joining PESCO now is so important, given that yon terrible Putin is aiming to swallow up the EU, one chihuahua Baltic state at the time. No, don’t ask how he can do that when, according to our ‘war reporters’ in the MSM, Russia is on her knees, having run out of weapons and men since March this year! No surprise then that an Estonian publication reports on the 10th of October this year on the Truss decision, quoting the Express article above. Right at the end of their report we read (my emphasis):
“EU and NATO member Denmark, which regularly contributes to the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Estonia, does not participated in PESCO.” (link)
Now isn’t that interesting! Keeping this in mind, let’s go back to the first report in the Express. Hidden right at the bottom of that report and therefore conveniently overlooked (my emphasis):
“David Banks, of Defence Policy Research, fears the move is part of a slippery slope to joining an EU army. There are concerns that senior figures in the civil service at the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office would like Britain to join an EU army. He said: “There is something like a 10 stage process of application, checking, negotiation and signing of binding commitments before the PESCO states even get to a vote. How has it come this far between Whitehall and EU apparatuses (European Defence Agency and Political and Security Committee) and we didn’t even know. People saying that US is already in Military Mobility but they were only invited. I’m not aware of any vote and deal of this kind.” (link)
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how leak-proof Whitehall can be if it suits them, especially if it suits the Rejoiners. There’s more. The Commons Library produced some research papers published on the 8th of November 2022 (link). I only looked at the summary and didn’t download them, but found this:
“As an EU member state the UK stayed outside the remit of PESCO after it was first established. Following Brexit, the UK expressed concerns over participation but remained open to cooperation on a case-by-case basis. In October 2022, however, the UK applied to join PESCO’s Military Mobility project. Approval for the UK’s participation is expected to be given at a meeting of EU Defence Ministers on 15 November 2022.” (link)
What the fluff is going on? Why are we suddenly so eager to ‘cooperate’? Let’s disregard for a moment that the EU Defence Ministers haven’t officially agreed to our joining, EU ambassadors have approved our application on the 19th of October (link) and, as we saw above, the EU’s chief diplomat M Borrell has already announced our ‘entry’ on Thursday. Scrolling down in a report in Euractiv published on the 10th of this month we find a remarkable note on finances:
“EU funding would then be channelled to plug significant gaps with an emphasis on dual-use infrastructure, meaning they can be used for both civilian and military purposes.” (link)
Three guesses who’ll help the EU to ‘plug significant gaps’! Are we now expected to shell out for ‘dual-use’ EU infrastructure projects? Are we perhaps also going to shell out to ‘help’ our NATO and now PESCO allies to remedy their derelict armed forces? Here’s a report on the state of France’s Army, from August this year (link), and here’s one published yesterday, on the state of the Bundeswehr which is even worse (link).
No wonder the EU welcomes us with open arms! No wonder our defence mandarins have been extremely leak-proof: “we” are permitted, after the fact, to be proud that the poor EU can’t do without us while at the same time the costs for us are being kept secret. We pay for illegal invaders, we pay for the Ukraine’s war, we are expected to freeze and starve without complaint – but hey, we’re in PESCO now, so rejoice, all you rejoiners!
I leave you with this question: where were and are our Westmisnter ‘journalists’? Were they unable to do the research? Or did their “sources” tell them to keep silent, to forget about PESCO, or else no juicy leaks? And why are the MPs silent? Was doing a bit of research too inconvenient or were they told to keep out of this?
I apologise for not having kept my eyes on this issue. Pointing out the squirrels the Westminster cabal keeps running does take time. Why, for fluffing fluffs’ sake, do we peasants with no resources have to ask the questions nobody in Westminster is prepared to ask? I’m hopping mad and I hope so are you!
I’m angry but not surprised. It has been evident for some time that we were being lied to on just about everything, whether that be the climate nonsense, Covid or Ukraine. I won’t be satisfied until I see the culprits hanging as they deserve, after a proper trial for which we need a proper Treason and Sedition Law restored. Unfortunately that will require a long wait. No wonder the good citizens of the US won’t give up their Second Amendment; exactly the situation it is required for.
So we were welcomed with open cheque book. Let’s be clear, the EU doesn’t give a flying fig for the U.K. it just wants all the borrowed dosh we can muster and to hell with us. These scum bags need teaching a lesson, and I hope to live long enough to see the house of cards come tumbling down.
So much obfuscation and weasel-speak; so many spades not being called spades.
“The Prime Minister has been warned not to allow the UK to be dragged into an EU Army by accident after she signed a military deal this week [that was 8th Oct.] at Emmanuel Macron’s European Political Community (EPC) summit in Prague. The decision to go into part of the PESCO has alarmed some Brexiteers who fear it could undermine the UK’s sovereignty.”
The Express would have us believe that the Prime minister might sign a ‘deal’ (er, what do we get out of it if it is a deal?) and commit our forces to an alliance ‘by accident’?
“fear it could undermine the UK’s sovereignty?”
Could? Could? Placing our troops under foreign command WILL/HAS ALREADY!
This was over a years ago:
https://www.bundeswehr.de/en/organization/army/news/german-and-british-engineers-become-one-5218618
https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/10/bridging-nations/
“the British Army’s application to a Dutch-led initiative ”
That would be WEF zealot puppet Rutte and apparently the British Army applied. What? They answer to the Crown; they have no authority to make foreign alliances. The government applied, but they daren’t suggest that. And as you say this cannot happen ‘by accident’, because it is a lengthy process. We know May quietly toddled off to Brussels, along with Alan Duncan, under cover of the Brexit distractions, and agreed this course several years ago, and it appears the Serpents have been slithering feverishly in their pit ever since.
“Approval for the UK’s participation is expected to be given at a meeting of EU Defence Ministers on 15 November 2022”
Approval? As of there is any doubt. Parliament has not even been told, let alone discussed it. And people still think we are a democracy!
Definition of government: organised lying.
Even when you hear a snippet of news that you approve of – amendments to the Online Harms Bill for example – you still have to ask what is it that you are not being told. There is a lie in everything we are told, something held back or something untrue added.
It is a mystery though why MPs have never, in the house or outside, raised the EU Army for debate. I’ve been going to political debates and events in London for years. The only time PESCO has cropped up, apart from Nick Clegg’s bald lie in the 2015 GE hustings, was when I met David Banks in a pub and learnt of his dogged campaign to get the issue into the open. He detailed the MPs he had had meetings with over several years, some grateful and sympathetic allegedly but from whom nothing was ever heard again. There is an omerta.
The EU cannot be a state in the sense it wants to be without an army (no matter how ineffective as it will be for years). The UK can assist with ‘mobility’, as it did in Mali providing transport for the French, on a case by case basis without joining PESCO. There are good reasons to cooperate with neighbours, but there is no need to support the EU’s dream of empire.
Perhaps, as the NHS and energy crises dominate the air waves, as Ukriane is used to generate insecurity, now was the time to slip this through. The only certainty is that no government minister will ever be interrogated as to what is really going on.
Might I draw attention to UK Column: Defence Section; in particular https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/franco-british-council-says-bye-bye-british-armed-forces-allo-eu-military-unification
The Tory party kept remarkably quiet about defence during the Brexit campaign, which they pretended to support.
I don’t recall Redwood, Baker, Davis or other Brexiteer Tory MPs raising the PESCO issue.
Jake………of course not, they don’t want to upset the apple cart and want to keep their career prospects of achieving high office open. Even more reason for the usual Conservative voters to swing right away from the Conservative Party at the next general election and consign them to the dustbin of history where they belong. However, we need a viable alternative right of centre to get behind and support. I am still not convinced by Reform UK despite them obtaining 8% in the opinion polls, although if Nigel Farage took over from Richard Tice that would provide the springboard. That 8% will not win them elections, they need to increase that percentage figure three fold to stand any chance of securing any seats. At the very height of the heyday of the United Kingdom Independence Party we achieved an 18% opinion poll rating at one point, but even that wasn’t enough. We knew then that we would have to exceed the 25% vote share nationwide before we could break the political mould, and of course as we know it didn’t materialise.
Fair comment Colin. Let us hope that the centre Right challengers can come to some agreement not to stand candidates against each other because that is what the Tories will be hoping will save their bacon.
Destroying the Tory Party, as Peter Hitchens says, is the only way to save small c conservatism. I shall be wearing out more shoe leather to help make that a reality.
Jake…UKIP should start negotiations of forming a loose alliance with the Heritage Party, Reclaim and SDP in advance of the next general election, and forget about Reform UK who seem to be more interested in reforming the Conservative Party rather than anything else. Tice should be left to waffle on about cutting government waste etc, whilst the other parties in a united front need to concentrate on matters which really affect the citizens of this country, like the cost of living, making this country self sufficient in terms producing its own energy, restoration of Fishing and Territorial Waters to full British control, the axing of the failed Northern Ireland protocol, and of course the English Channel migrant crisis and the immigration situation as a whole. There is no time to lose now, time is pressing on. Any chance of that happening any time soon, do you know?
Colin. I second your proposals but I am as much in the dark as you are on this. As you say time is running short so they need to do some thing quick. I can’t see Reclaim throwing their lot in with anybody but Reform UK as Lawrence Fox is now a presenter and colleague of Farage on GB News.
Err no Jake at 9.12am. Me neither. Lost faith now in any of them.