Sir Bernard Jenkin

Sir Bernard Jenkin

Conservative — Harwich and North Essex

Speaking in the House of Commons on 19 October 2026

Debate

Defence Co-operation: European Union

Contribution

May I commend the Government’s decision to stay out of the SAFE—Security Action for Europe—programme? It was going to be horrendously expensive, we would have got less money out than we would have put in, it was going to take the intellectual property of any participating company who offered a programme to it, and it was going to take far too long to build up any capability. Can we concentrate on NATO? Will the Minister advise the Liberal Democrats that defence in the EU is a reserved matter to the member states? Therefore, we are much better off co-operating through NATO, which is also much quicker than trying to do something with some European—

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