The Security and Defence Partnership which the government agreed with the European Union this week has had more spin applied to it than a thousand cricket balls. The central argument in its favour, apart from vacuous reiki-like attempts to change the ‘mood’ of relations with the EU, was that it would allow the UK defence sector to engage with the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan instrument providing €150 billion (£127 billion) for defence procurement over the next five years. It does not do that.
You would be hard pressed to realise that the partnership has not succeeded in what many saw as its central purpose. Weasel words came in a pack, and some commentators were openly untruthful, but the ‘ambitious’ deal says only that ‘possibilities for establishing an administrative arrangement between the UK and the European Defence Agency (EDA) will… be explored’. The most positive official statement of the whole summit was a single sentence in the ‘Common
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