Geoffrey Van Orden (ECR). – Madam President, I am a bit confused by Mr Borg’s remarks. One set of EU forces? Or national forces under national control? You seem to think it’s both. I mean it’s all smoke and mirrors. God help us if we have to rely on the European Union for our defence. Where’s all this money going to come from, I wonder? I have to say one of the many objections we had to the Treaty of Lisbon was the licence it gave to those pursuing this sort of mirage of an autonomous EU defence policy.

The report we are discussing confirms our misgivings. The Euro-federalists seem to inhabit a curious bleak and empty space where no one else is doing anything to address the security challenges that we all face, and where their answer to every problem is more EU. Of course the reality is quite different. As has been pointed out, the defence of our democracies against the threat of aggression is carried out by NATO. Twenty-two of the 28 EU Member States are NATO members, four of the remainder work closely with NATO, and just a month ago Finland, for instance, agreed a cyber defence cooperation arrangement with NATO.

NATO harnesses the overwhelming military power of the United States to that of the European nations for their mutual defence, and we have the vital Article 5 guarantee. So I just wonder what on earth the EU is up to with its ambitions for an autonomous defence capability. Yet another bureaucratic monster, perhaps, as Mr Danjean put it a few moments ago referring to another bit of EU activity.