Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proposals his Department has for further defence integration between the armed forces of EU member states; and whether defence integration will be included in the Government's planned renegotiations of the terms of its membership of the EU.

Her Majesty's Government is focused on delivering a successful renegotiation;we believe we can and will succeed in reforming and renegotiating our relationship with the EU and campaigning to keep the UK in the EU on that basis. Although we welcome closer co-operation between the armed forces of EU and NATO member states, this needs to be based on improving defence capabilities across Europe, not creating new institutions. We will not support measures which would undermine member states' competence for their own military forces, or lead to competition and duplication with NATO