At last week’s Munich Security Conference, UK Prime Minister Theresa May urged European leaders to agree a new UK-EU defence treaty, outside Brexit negotiations.
Such a UK-EU defence treaty would be unprecedented, May acknowledged, but comprehensive partnerships between the EU and third countries have been possible in areas such as trade. She argued that the treaty is necessary to protecting citizens across the continent, and would be possible with concerted political effort.
The partnership would be designed to continue the country’s defence co-operation with the EU following Brexit, and protect existing legislation on collaborative intelligence sharing and anti-terror operations. This treaty would also exist outside the UK and EU’s commitments to their partners in NATO.
What did Theresa May say?
The prime minister reiterated that the UK remains committed to leaving the EU, and emphasised that this made a separate UK-EU defence treaty increasingly necessary to the security of both Britons and Europeans.
She said: “We are leaving the EU and there is no question of [that, but] the UK is just as committed to Europe’s security in the future as it has been in the past. It’s in all our interests to underpin this cooperation.”
May added that defence considerations should not be impacted by other political elements of Brexit negotiations, which is why such a treaty should be negotiated outside of primary withdrawal talks.
She explained: “This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardise the security of our citizens”.
How has the EU responded?
The prime minister warned that the EU’s ‘no cherry-picking’ approach to Brexit negotiations could be damaging if it was applied to all kinds of negotiations: “If the priority in the negotiations becomes to avoid any kind of new cooperation with a country outside the EU, then this political doctrine and ideology will have damaging real-world consequences for the security of all our people”.
In response, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed that defence and security co-operation was in the interests of both parties, and that it should not be complicated by Brexit negotiations. He said: “This security bridge between the UK and the EU will be maintained [because] we still need it.”
