Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of participating in the EU’s Geo-meteorological and Oceanographic Support Coordination Element Permanent Structured Cooperation project.
Our priority is to finalise entry into the PESCO Military Mobility project before considering involvement in other projects. However we continue to assess that the EU's existing 'third country' terms of participation for PESCO projects, involving capability development or procurement, place significant restraints on UK involvement in other PESCO projects.
We continue to constructively engage with the EU to ensure its initiatives are complementary to NATO and supportive of meaningful third country participation.