Recommendation 13

HM Government Acknowledged

The Department shares the Committee’s view on the benefit of NATO-EU engagement and is pleased that it supports the UK’s application to join the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) Military Mobility project. We are encouraged that NATO’s Strategic Concept and the EU’s Strategic Compass present similar views on much of the strategic security environment and welcomed the signature of the NATO-EU Joint Declaration in January, which contained specific commitments to work together more closely on resilience, geostrategic competition, emerging and disruptive technologies, foreign information interference and more. NATO-EU cooperation in these areas would contribute to UK priorities and prove vital as the threats we face evolve. We will need close NATO-EU engagement to protect long- term European security, particularly in developing and procuring defence technologies to replenish our stocks as we continue to support Ukraine. a range of key issues. The UK will continue to support close cooperation and coherence between NATO and the EU as important on a range of challenges, where the strengths and different tools of both organisations need to be combined. We are also calling for the fullest possible involvement of non-EU NATO Allies in EU initiatives and vice-versa. However, we will not support any measures that undermine our sovereignty over our own armed forces, or that leads to competition or duplication with NATO.