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Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, may I just be sure that I understand the noble Lord? Was he suggesting that Al'Qaeda has some role in Rwanda?
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, I said that terrorism with an international linkage is evident in the central African area, certainly in the DRC, but also in Rwanda and other parts of Africa. Yes, I was saying that it is everywhere. It would be hard to find a place where this infection has not been caught in local crises.
There is the argument that 9/11 has driven the United States to a preference for going it alone. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, warned us about his impression of what is being said in Washington. Therefore, the argument goes, there must be an EU alternative which must also go it alone. I regard that whole line of thinking as a spurious fantasy. First, even the United States, with its 13 carrier forces and its budget increase this year the size of the whole of our defence budget and so on, cannot go it alone against world terrorism because world terrorism is an internal issue which needs intimate understanding of the internal political workings of a whole range of societies, cultures and religions. For that it needs the help of many nations, large and small.
Secondly, the European Union is incapable—I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Williams of Elvel—of meeting the United States' capacities and technology. Anyway, there is no need; it would be ridiculous duplication to do so. We would indeed be going along the path which the noble Lord, Lord Owen, mentioned with regard to the Galileo project and unnecessary and expensive duplication instead of integrating and building up a coherent NATO system which can meet all the modern challenges.
If there is US despair at the moment, it is not because of a lack of autonomous European defence but because the rapid reaction force with all its political trappings and rhetoric is taking Europe's eye off the ball. We all know that this is a dangerous new world which requires new thinking. Mr Cheney has said that the next hit by terrorists is not a question of "if" but of "when". He said that it would be in the United States; but it is just as likely to be in the United Kingdom. We are just as likely to be the next target.
Against that chilling background, the military tasks are clear. Indeed, they are set out well in the MoD's New Chapter, which argues that we now need forces that prevent, deter, coerce, disrupt and destroy. Clearly—this is my argument, not that of the MoD document—for that, we need a strong European end of NATO and strong homeland defences. We need NATO to reinvent its own structure and to embrace all the resources that we can mobilise in Europe.
The RRF contribution to either of those aims is questionable and its goals are obscure and political. The sooner that the Government return to the real tasks, the better. As Marc Grossman, the US Under-Secretary in the State Department, said the other day, for Europe, it all comes down to cash and hard choices. The Government must now make those hard choices. Unless they do, these dangerous times will come to be seen not as the time of seizing opportunities and preparing for the dangers ahead, but as the years that the locusts ate.
9.56 p.m.
The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, for introducing this debate and all the members of his committee for the hard work and
professionalism that they dedicated to their task. I also thank all of your Lordships who participated in the debate for their contributions. Of course, I agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, said about our sad loss in not having my late noble friend Lord Shore with us this evening.A number of your Lordships remarked that the terrible events of September 11th last year have made us all more aware of how vulnerable we are to challenges to our security and of the role that crisis management can play in providing the bedrock for that security. The European security and defence policy is about crisis management and security issues. Crisis management is about bringing stability, and stability is essential to allow people to get on with their lives and to build their societies and economies. Stable societies offer people the chance to look to the future with hope and, on the whole, are less likely to be breeding grounds for terrorism. I applaud my noble friend Lord Judd for placing our debate in that context.
I remind your Lordships that recent missions in Sierra Leone, East Timor, Bosnia and Kosovo have all shown that peacekeeping is possible and can be effective. The recent independence of East Timor and elections in Sierra Leone have demonstrated the fruits of such operations. But of course, as a global player, it is right that the EU should share responsibility for such activity. As many of your Lordships, including the noble Lord, Lord Vivian, remarked, the past decade has shown that successful crisis management demands different tools, capabilities, strategies and tactics at different times.
So my noble friend Lord Judd was right: at the strategic level, the ESDP will complement existing EU tools—humanitarian and development aid, diplomacy, and trade. They must all be deployed. But at the operational level, ESDP has the unique potential to draw on military and civilian crisis management capabilities—policemen alongside peacekeepers—under the political control of a single body.
The Government welcome your Lordships' report on the European security and defence policy and we share the overriding priorities reflected in it. I assure the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, that we are still listening to a number of points that were raised.
I turn first to the issue of military capabilities. Your Lordships' report reiterates that military capabilities count most, not structures—a point made forcefully by my noble friend Lord Gilbert and the noble Lord, Lord Vivian. The Government agree emphatically with that. Without enhancing European military capabilities, military structures lack meaning. I strongly agree with what the noble Baroness, Lady Park, said. General Naumann's points were right in that respect.
To many outside your Lordships' House, military capabilities are perhaps a less interesting aspect of the European security and defence policy. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, implied, capability is the fundamental building block. The Government continue to believe that, without harnessing the EU's economic strength to create a pool of military
capabilities, the EU's ability to contribute to global security will remain limited. For example, as the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, and my noble friend Lord Gilbert said, EU nations lack enough heavy-lift aircraft to transport troops and equipment to a crisis quickly. Although there is no shortage of European troops, we still do not have ways of getting them into theatre quickly enough. That hampers our ability as Europeans to play our role in international crisis management.While the UK and others wait for the Airbus A400M aircraft to be delivered to fill that shortfall, we are leading the way to fill the heavy airlift shortfalls in the interim by leasing the four C17 aircraft to which my noble friend referred. Others in the EU are following by seeking to lease the Antonov AN124 aircraft from the Ukraine. However, we must take into account the ability of that aircraft to land and be maintained and its manoeuvrability in any theatre. I remind the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, about those points.
That is an example of the way in which the UK works with EU partners to provide the nuts and bolts needed for military crisis management. I agree with my noble friend, Lord Gilbert, that it is not yet enough, but I remind him that every plane and every military project has, at some point, been what he described as a paper project. We both know that from our former roles as Minister for Defence Procurement. I also remind my noble friend and the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, that there are break clauses in our arrangements for the A400M. If we do not reach the targets for delivery dates and capability, the UK can exercise its option to seek alternatives.
To stimulate the kind of military capability to which so many noble Lords referred, the EU set itself an ambitious goal in 1999. That goal was not as modest as the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Richmond, or my noble friend Lord Williams of Elvel suggested. The Helsinki headline goal is important. It means that, by 2003, EU member states should be able to deploy collectively up to 60,000 troops within 60 days and keep that number in theatre for at least a year. I assure the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, that we already have enough troops; what we need to work on is heavy lift capability and several of our strategic weapon systems. Those matters are being addressed, and I am assured that we are on track.
I listened carefully to the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, who said that 60 days was too long and one year was too short. For some projects, that will be true, but it is important that, nonetheless, we have a goal in place towards which we are working as a valuable launchpad for what we are trying to do.
We agree with the Select Committee's assessment that reaching the headline goal by 2003 is a challenging target. The goal needed to be challenging to motivate the kind of change in spending priorities required to enhance European military capabilities. My noble friend Lord Bruce of Donington was right: it is not committees that count, it is real capabilities. Like my noble friend, Her Majesty's Government want to see
real improvements. The EU has made some progress in enhancing military capabilities. By last November's capabilities improvement conference, EU member states had met 104 of the 144 capability target areas listed in the headline goal.I heard what the noble Baroness, Lady Park of Monmouth, said about how we had done the easy ones first and left the difficult ones for later, but I do not believe that the targets are modest. They are realistic, and we are working steadily towards them. They will be difficult to meet. I make no bones about that. I ask the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Richmond, and my noble friend Lord Williams of Elvel, not to think that we have a modest challenge ahead of us. Of those 40 shortfall areas, about half are significant. Work is in hand to address all 40 but the EU has agreed a European capabilities action plan to be implemented by panels of national experts. Eighteen of those panels are already active. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, in a very thoughtful contribution, that an effort is being made to improve European capability on those issues.
As the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, said, the committee asked whether the bulk of the burden for capabilities improvement continues to fall disproportionately on the United Kingdom and France. That point was reiterated by the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Richmond. I am pleased to be able to report to your Lordships, and in particular to my noble friend Lord Gilbert, that the imbalance to which your Lordships point is gradually shifting. I acknowledge that it is a gradual shift, but it is none the less discernible. For example, the Dutch are spending an additional 136 million euros on European capability upgrades. They have announced up to 952 million euros-worth of new programmes between 2002 and 2011 to achieve the headline goal. Likewise, Finland invested some 67 million euros extra in equipment specifically for use in crisis management operations. Those are tangible investments.
That leads me to correct a widely held misconception. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Harrison for his remarks about the notion of a European army. We have discussed the matter on many occasions, but your Lordships' report often refers to the European rapid reaction force whereas no such force exists. It is the capability that we are trying to secure, not a standing force. It is more than mere semantics because there is no desire for a standing EU force of command structure. The EU will use existing NATO or national capabilities. EU member states and third countries will decide nationally whether to make available their national capabilities for operation under ESDP—just as they do at present for NATO, for the UN or for a coalition of the willing.
Many of your Lordships led by the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, and well supported by the noble Lords, Lord Howell of Guildford, Lord Harrison, Lord Owen and Lord Vivian, argued eloquently and robustly that we need to increase and sustain our defence spending to fulfil these capability shortfalls.
I noted the notable and cogent points put by the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, which were not quite on the same side of the argument.European defence spending has levelled out in the past year. We, the UK, are actively engaging other EU partners diplomatically to maintain and in some cases to increase defence spending. NATO figures show a different picture from that painted in the committee's report and I would like to write particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, who concentrated his remarks in that area, and to the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, giving details of that matter and to place a copy in the Library of the House.
We believe that the UK has done its part in keeping European defence spending buoyant. Not only is it true that we have stopped the decline in defence spending which took place under our predecessors, but we are now spending more. Between 2000-01 and 2003-04, UK defence spending will have risen in real terms for the first time in more than a decade.
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