PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
EU Defence Policy: British Nationals Abroad (19 February 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many British nationals were seconded to EU military and civilian missions and operations, in which countries those missions were located and by which EU treaty those missions were created, in each of the last 10 years.

Asked by:
Anna McMorrin (Labour)

In 2017, 82 British nationals were deployed to EU Common Security and Defence Policy military operations and missions: 57 at the UK headquarters of the Naval Force for Somalia, eight to the Training Mission in Mali, seven to Force Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina, six to the Naval Force in the Mediterranean, and four to the Training Mission in Somalia. A further 120 personnel were in the intermediate reserve held in the UK for Force Althea.

25 British nationals were deployed to civilian missions: nine to the Monitoring Mission in Georgia, six to the Advisory Mission in Ukraine, six to the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, three to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office in the Netherlands, and one to the Capacity Building Mission in Mali.

These operations and missions were established under the Treaty of European Union, as amended by the Maastricht Treaty in the cases of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Naval Force Somalia; and as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon in the cases of Ukraine, Mali, the Mediterranean, and the Training Mission to Somalia.

The information requested on UK personnel for the years since 2008 is not held centrally but I refer the hon. Member the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister for the Armed Forces (Mr Francois) of 1 December 2014 to (PQ) 214602 to the hon. Member for Wrexham (Mr Lucas), and to the House of Lords Library Research Briefing "Leaving the European Union: UK Armed Forces and Diplomatic Service" published on 2 December 2016 (http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/LLN-2016-0066#fullreport).

Answered by:
Sir Alan Duncan (Conservative)
22 February 2018