NewsOpinionColumnistsDURING the pandemic the work of the Nato allies, especially across Europe, has been key in helping to deliver vital logistical and practical support to help tackle Covid-19.

Friday, 9th October 2020, 11:36 am

However, the Nato Alliance is now facing its biggest threat to its existence than at any time in its 71 year history due to a federalist approach by the EU to defence that could ultimately destroy its key principle of ally security.

Article 42 is the Permanent Security and Co-operation (Pesco) articles of the Lisbon Treaty. I believe it to be a confused, ill thought through and dangerous policy.

When Pesco was signed into effect, it wasnt the dream of the founding fathers being realised, it was President Putin finding it hard to believe that he wasnt dreaming. Although not the European Army in name it prescribes a common security an defence policy.

There has been a pitiful investment in defence across many European nations for years, with the vast majority not even getting close to the two per cent of GDP demanded by Nato membership, let alone the 20 per cent of that sum being spent on capital equipment.

With Pesco now in place, the member states will be contributing billions of pounds towards the European Defence Fund but hidden under the guise of contributions to the European Union to satisfy their home audience.

The obvious concern for longstanding Nato allies outside of Pesco, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Norway, Iceland and Turkey, is that the EU allies will no longer have a transparent need to invest in national defence capabilities; rather hide them in the complexities of a new EU framework.

With an ambition for a half a trillion Euro budget, many EU nations will want to count this towards their two per cent Nato investment, despite the fact it will be difficult to see where this money goes.

Often in Nato Parliamentary Annual Assembly meetings, delegates from some European nations try to include their infrastructure spending as part of their contribution, arguing that the money they spend in heavier engineering of bridges and roads for tank movements should be counted towards their two per cent contribution.

What is even more disturbing is that Pesco will only procure its hardware from inside its own club, and the world leading defence industry in the UK will be shut out in the European Unions creation of this closed shop for defence.

The EU wants to procure as one body across the bloc in a similar way to the US, but because it could never operate constitutionally as one federalised block, it would rely on the goodwill of member states to allow their assets to be used in a Nato-led operation.

An efficiently spread, and EU-centred procurement of assets, will inevitably lead to some countries having the lions share of key capital assets.

But countries such as Germany have a constitutional restriction on taking part in aggressive military acts.

Therefore, if under the Pesco arrangements, Germany had a range of key assets that were needed for a Nato operation, it could be constitutionally obliged to say no and thus render the European allies of Nato to be of little or inconsequential support.

The consequences of these decisions lead me to believe that within a procurement generation, it could be impossible to mount a Nato operation in relation to an attack on one of the allies, known as the triggering of Article 5.

President Trump may have articulated his frustration at Nato partners in not pulling their weight, but this is no different to President Obamas criticisms and is supported by the US Congress.

The European Union is in grave danger of rendering the European allies of Nato worthless and, in those circumstances, the stability and deterrent of the most successful military alliance in history will crumble before our eyes.

I strongly believe that Pesco could bring about the collapse of the Nato alliance as we know ittoday, leaving the European continent (including ourselves) at the mercy of Russias strategic whims. The UK must ensure that our upcoming strategic defence review focuses its modelling in a world where the Nato alliance may no longer be able to count solidly on its traditional European allies.

Despite the horrific economic consequences of Covid-19 on our economy, the actions of the European Union mean that it is imperative that we do not cut our investment in our defence capabilities.

Alec Shelbrooke is Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, and leader of the UK delegation to the Nato Parliamentary Assembly.

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Dont let EU weaken Nato and leave West at Russias mercy Alec Shelbrooke - Yorkshire Post