Examination of Witnesses (Questions 397-399)
Rt Hon Caroline Flint, Ms Katherine Fox and Mr Adam
Bye
16 OCTOBER 2008
Q397 Chairman: Minister, thank you very
much indeed for agreeing to come to see us, and particularly coming
to see us rather soon after you have taken up your new responsibilities
which we are very pleased about. We know that you have had experience
on these matters before so it is not a totally new field, but
we are very grateful. As you know, we are carrying out an inquiry
into the future of the European Security Strategy and the review
which is going on and, although we took quite a lot of evidence
before the summer, in view of developments which have occurred
during the summer, we thought it was necessary to take some further
evidence. We also have the intention of doing some further work
on the European Union's work in the West Balkans and therefore
we also have several questions on that as well. Can I also welcome
Katherine Fox and Adam Bye who are with you from Russia and from
the Western Balkans desks of the Office. We are very grateful
that you have them with you.
Caroline Flint: So am I.
Q398 Chairman: Could I begin by asking
you if you would like to give us a view on the current state of
discussions on the review of the European Security Strategy and
how you see the process being taken forward? What outcome do you
expect at the December European Council on the Strategy?
Caroline Flint: Thank you very much,
Lord Roper. My understanding is the work is on track for the December
European Council. There have been several discussions at official
level. Mr Solana, the High Representative, is going to take the
same course of action when he produced the original document which
is, I think, to be in charge of the writing of it and, having
looked through the document, it is quite amazing in terms of the
EU to get something as concise but direct as the original document.
The process of informal discussions with Member States with a
text is similar to the process in 2003. This might have been mentioned
before by my predecessor, Jim Murphy, one of the particular areas
that he felt was omitted was the issue of climate change which,
in terms of security supply and so forth, has become a much more
important and talked about issue than it was five years ago. In
terms of the outcome, my impression is that the review will say
that the Strategy—a mission statement I suppose—has
stood the test of time. It clearly needs to be informed by climate
change as I have already mentioned, but also ESDP missions that
have taken place in the last five years. As an observer rather
than a Europe minister it is clear to me that that part of the
European Union's work has developed and clearly has been perceived
as having an important role to play in terms of the EU and its
neighbouring communities. The review will, we believe, reflect
the UK National Security Strategy so that is obviously important
for us but it will need to think about how it will be more effective
on key threats like terrorism, proliferation, I have mentioned
climate change, but also better linkages between external and
internal security. I think that really in terms of process outcomes
is what we are looking forward to seeing.
Q399 Lord Hamilton of Epsom: You
said it has stood the test of time but on the whole I get the
feeling the British position is that the European response to
the crisis we are trying to deal with at the moment has been pretty
pathetic. Do you think that this Strategy should do actually do
something to enforce the necessity for European countries to defend
our interests? I am also thinking particularly here of Afghanistan;
they seem to think that all the heavy lifting should be done by
the Americans, British, Canadians and Australians.
Caroline Flint: I am not a Ministry of
Defence minister but I think we learn from these engagements and
certainly the calls on our services in terms of peace keeping
activities and other engagements for us as a UK Government are
something that has tested those at the MoD in terms of how we
can play a role because we are seen as one of the countries that
delivers what we provide. However, the question is—and I
think it is a fair question—how much more through our partnership
in the EU we can build the capacity and see how we ensure that
there is a more equal role in terms of responsibility but also
to deliver the capacity in these different engagements. I think
it is a learning process and I think that is why it is important
that as part of the review we look at the last five years where
there have been the ESDP engagements and involvement and we take
stock of those.
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