Common European Foreign Policy

[MammaBrussels]

Really interesting piece in today's Guardian. It suggests that high level talks have been going on to create a European foreign ministry. Could/ should the UK remain in the Union if these proposals were enacted?

It was always the plan (though often denied by our lying British politicians) for the EU to end up as a "country called Europe". The original Treaty of Rome (1959??) referred to "ever closer union". Hence the Common Agricultural Policy, Common Fishing Policy, Common Trade Policy. The EU Constitution (later rebranded as the Lisbon Treaty) declared the EU to have "legal personality", meaning that it can act as a state in its own right.

The EU has been setting up EU embassies for some time now in various countries.

The Euro was never an economic project but rather a political one, designed to bring about fiscal then political union.

Now that the Euro is in crisis the federalists are desparately trying to complete the end-game.

IMHO the UK should not be part of this. Whether we will be sucked into it remains to be seen.

No - we should get out as soon as possible. Any British foreign policy would have to be subsumed within whatever the EU wanted to do whether it was in our interests or not. To give a hypothetical scenario, let's imagine Argentina was to re-invade the Falklands. Britain has pledged to defend the islanders but I cannot see how this would be a priority for a pan-European foreign minister any more than I can see Britain rushing to war with Morocco in the event of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta being invaded.

An EU foreign policy has to inevitably lead to an EU army. Take a look around Europe, with the exception of (bits of) the French military, most continental armies are ill equipped and a bit Mickey Mouse compared to our own. This is crystal clear for anyone who has spent any time working with NATO. And before anyone uses the example of NATO as a prototype for how an EU army could work, think twice. The US is by far the biggest contributor to NATO and their capabilities would be a massive loss for a pan-EU army to replace. Finally, having observed this on the ground, I have no idea how you could possibly integrate the British squaddie (from one end of the spectrum) with the unionised Dutch (at the other end) within the same army.