Britain Frustrates EU Project for Security, Defense HQ over 'NATO Worries'

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe (2ndL) chats with British Foreign Secretary William Hague (R) at the start of a European foreign affairs ministers council in Brussels, Belgium 18 July 2011. EPA/BGNES

The UK government has declared itself against a proposal for setting up a permanent operational headquarters of the EU for security and defense, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has declared.

Hague spoke in Brussels on the sidelines of a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, which discussed the issue, as cited by Dow Jones.

"The United Kingdom will not agree to such a permanent operational headquarters... The United Kingdom will block any such move now and in the future," he said.

In his words, the UK is the only country prepared to block the proposal for establishing a joint operational headquarters of the EU – a project put forth especially by France, among other EU member states.

A common EU security and defense headquarters is supposed to help the its coordinate better its security and defense policy, and pool together its respective resources as at present EU states' defense spending is widely seen as inexpedient and inefficient.

"We're opposed to this idea because we think that this duplicates NATO structures and permanently disassociates EU planning from NATO planning," the British Foreign Minister said.

He claimed that a permanent EU headquarters would be "much more costly" and would risk deepening a divide between the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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