Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the European Intervention Initiative in protecting European security interests.

We support the European Intervention Initiative. We believe that it complements existing NATO and EU structures and initiatives. It has proven to be a useful forum for open discussion between European nations on global security challenges and demonstrates that Europe is able to co-operate in new ways on defence outside existing EU structures.