17 October 2003
Read the Prime Minister’s statement in full
Prime Minister
Good morning everyone. Let me just say one or two words first of all. Firstly I would like to say how pleased I was by the vote at the United Nations yesterday. I think that is good news for the international community and most particularly for the people in Iraq. As you know we are making real progress in Iraq, despite the continuing terrorist attacks on American forces, British forces, and indeed most of all the Iraqi people, but we remain confident, with the support amongst the overwhelming majority of Iraqis that we can put the country back on its feet and ready for a stable and secure future.
In respect of the European Council, and we have debated a number of different things, there’s a focus this morning particularly on the growth initiative of the Italian Presidency which I welcome. It is very important we make sure that the European economy is growing more strongly than it is at the moment and in particular that we take the measures of structural reform that are necessary for a prosperous Europe in the future.
We have also discussed the issues of the European Constitution of course. I just want to make it absolutely clear once again that the European Constitution for Britain has got to be one based on independent sovereign nation states co-operating together, not some federal super state. We will not agree to anything that leads us down that road, and I don’t believe that that will be the outcome of these discussions. And in relation to defence that we need of course strong European defence, but nothing whatever must put at risk our essential defence guarantees within NATO, and I’m quite confident on both these scores that we will be successful and what we have agreed today is to carry on having these discussions and hopefully we can conclude the Inter-Governmental Conference in the Italian Presidency.
I think that’s all I need to say by way of opening.
Question and Answer Session
Question
Prime Minister, you’re going to be leaving with President Chirac having the voices of two countries round the table, France and Germany, and I noticed that in your bilaterals increasingly you are meeting with France and Germany together. Is there an axis, and have they managing to woo you away from President Bush on the issue of defence?
Prime Minister
Let me make one thing very clear to you. I will never put at risk NATO, and I think in the last year it would be impossible to accuse me of being anything other than a staunch ally and friend of the United States. But I believe that Britain has to be strong in Europe and strong with America, and there are people who want to pull me away from Europe, and people who want to pull me away from America. The position under my Prime Ministership will be that we remain strong with both. That’s where Britain should be in the 21st century, strong European power, strong as allies with the United States of America. And I don’t think there’s any inconsistency between the two at all, and I also believe that most sensible people realise the problems of the world are easier to sort out if Europe and America work together and Britain can play a part in making sure, particularly after the divisions in the international community, that we work together.
Question
Can you spell out on defence, Prime Minister, what it is in the Treaty text now that it is impossible for Britain to sign up to, and what will you do if those parts of the Treaty remain there with French and German insistence.
Prime Minister
Well, there’s nothing that can remain in any Treaty without British agreement since it requires unanimity, and I don’t think there’s going to be a great deal of problem on it. I think that everyone will accept in the end that the defence guarantees for us and for most of the countries around the table have got to be rooted in NATO. And at the discussion we had last night I would say the vast majority of people spoke up for European defence but only on the basis that it is fully compatible with the NATO agreement. And I think it is an indication of the chance we have to influence the debate in Europe that when Britain speaks up for the NATO Alliance, we get the support of the vast majority of people including, I have to say, France and Germany who recognise that in the end European defence has no future as a competitor to NATO. It can only work if it is fully compatible with NATO.
Question
Are you concerned at all, Prime Minister, about The Queen, the possibility that The Queen will be sidelined by this new Constitution?
Prime Minister
I think there are 7 countries round the table that have Heads of State that are Kings or Queens. None of us is going to give this up. So I think it is important that we debate the European Constitution on the basis of what is actually in it, rather than set away these hares or scares. Just remember one thing about this. We are now in a Europe of 25. All those 10 new European countries some of them have suffered the most terrible brutal oppression under the old Soviet Union. None of these countries is going to give up their independence. The whole of Europe is moving in Britain’s direction today. That’s why, as I say, when you have a debate about defence, Britain speaks up the vast majority are in favour of the position we set out. We’ve got nothing to be scared of as a country in relation to Europe. It’s important for Britain to be in there making our influence felt in Europe, and there is no way we would ever give up our basic constitutional position. That’s part of our identity as a country and of course what we will continue to do is to try and make sure that Europe can work effectively. And as these new countries come in, it is going to be all the more important that we are building allies in Europe.
Question
Isn’t it the truth, Prime Minister, that as soon as you have a separate, permanent planning capability, the European Defence, then you have a threat to the primacy of NATO as the Americans clearly believe?
Prime Minister
But you already have a European planning capacity. I think the issue is to do with whether you set up a competitor capability in operations. But I don’t think people in Europe want to do that. What we want is a situation ….. let me just try and explain to you why European Defence comes about. What we want is a situation where NATO is the basis and cornerstone of our defence, where by preference NATO where it wants to be engaged, in other words where the Americans want to come in on an operation, NATO is going to be the body that we use. But there will be circumstances, we have them now in Macedonia, where America for one reason or another doesn’t want to be involved. In those circumstances it is important that Europe has the capability to act independently, not in opposition to America, but simply where America doesn’t want to be involved. Macedonia is a classic example. And I think if we approached it in that way we preserve the strength of the Transatlantic Alliance but we also give ourselves the option, where we want to, to make sure that Europe has its own capability.
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