11/09/2014
Work on erecting the Berlin Wall started on 13 August 1961, and the date on which the Wall fell is considered to have been 9 November 1989 â almost exactly 25 years ago.
But with only just over a half a century elapsed since the wall was first built, we are again seeing the spectre of
a wall dividing parts of Europe â an outcome, at least in part, of the interference of an organisation supposedly dedicated to keeping the peace in Europe â but actually keeping Europe in pieces.
Yet, despite the European Union bringing us to the brink of another world war, the
British government is still marching blindly into enhanced defence co-operation with it.
During a recent visit to Milan, we are told, recently appointed Defence Secretary Michael Fallon "joined EU defence ministers for discussions about security, defence and the situations in Iraq and Ukraine".
This was one of those "informal" meetings, but the ministers still talked about developing a policy framework for long term defence co-operation, the financing of EU missions and operations, "rapid response options" available to members of the EU, and the next steps to be taken beyond furnishing EU battle groups.
Thus we have a British defence secretary willingly engaging in discussions to "support the development of European Council initiatives" to strengthen the EU's common security and defence policy. The next step will be during formal council talks, which are to take place in November.
What is doubly worrying though is what appears to be the gradual merging of EU and NATO interests, so that the two organisations are effectively becoming one and the same.
Thus we find ministers focusing their talks on the EU response to the crisis in Ukraine, "building on the progress made at the NATO Summit in Wales last week".
At that summit, the UK announced a double commitment of headquarters staff and a battle group to a NATO spearhead rapid reaction force, and a commitment of up to 3,000 troops to a new Joint Expeditionary Force â but that is as much to serve EU interests as NATO commitments.
In fact, as Ukraine is not a NATO member, NATO as an organisation has no locus in what amounts to an internal dispute between Russia and the Ukraine.
Fallon, however, is peddling the NATO/EU line, talking of "huge security challenges" across the Middle East and eastern Europe, and of "building structures that allow us to respond to threats quickly and effectively is integral to our collective security".
Whatever "collective security" issues there might be, we get no sense that Fallon was at the meeting safeguarding British national interests. But, if "collective action" so far has only been able to trigger the building of more walls in an area of increasing instability, we might be better off if Mr Fallon was more cautious about offering the EU more British co-operation.
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