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Straw: “A stronger European
role in the world”
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that EU enlargement will strengthen its capacity to promote order and prosperity within its borders and beyond.
Mr Straw said that an enlarged EU would recover from recent divisions, adding that the enlargement would “embed the values of liberal democracy across the continent”.
Commenting on proposals to establish an institutional framework to cope with the 25 sovereign countries, the Foreign Secretary said:
“…we and our European partners are not about to agree to the sacrifice of national civilisations nor the imposition of central control. The reality is more prosaic. It is about making an enlarged EU more efficient and open.”
He added that he thought it absurd to suggest that an enlarged Europe will be a tyranny when the wider Europe has been built on tyranny’s defeat.
“The British public deserves a higher level of debate than this, and we will do all we can to make sure the debates and arguments ahead - will respect the public’s intelligence.”
He argued that there should not be a referendum on the Convention as no final decisions had been taken. Although significant reforms were likely the decisions would not compromise national sovereignty, Mr Straw said.
He said that to enhance Europe’s global reach the Common Foreign and Security Policy should be strengthened to focus on the areas where it can have greatest impact. “The EU should summon the will to back its commitment to collective security with military muscle,” he said.
He identified global terrorism, the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction and economic injustice as grave new threats to the security and prosperity of the continent.
Mr Straw also stressed the importance of Europe’s partnership with the United States, saying that few Europeans today want their countries to make a choice between the United States or the EU.
“They want both. Because they recognise that when the US and Europe are united, there is no more powerful force for good in the world.”
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