EU report calls for greater naval co-ordination between members

The EU faces growing domination of its vital sea lanes by Asian powers and should use the national overseas military bases of the UK, France and other EU countries in a co-ordinated way to increase the visibility of Europe's naval power and protect its commercial and maritime interests, says a new report by the European Parliament.

Commissioned by the parliament's sub-committee on security and defence, the 25-page report argues for new shipbuilding programmes co-ordinated at EU level and for the placement of national overseas military installations and maritime power "at the crux" of the union's European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

Noting that the EU's most important trade route and maritime line of communication runs through three of the world's most potentially explosive "strategic chokepoints" - the Suez Canal, the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Hormuz - the committee report says the whole littoral area from the Suez Canal to the Sea of China is increasingly crucial to the EU, yet subject to the growing naval strength of China, India and Russia.

"The EU's energy consumption and commerce depend heavily on these supply lines," James Rogers, one of the report's two authors, told a 30 March meeting of the sub-committee in Brussels. "Separately, EU member states have very limited power projection and logistics capability. Yet they have a number of military installations around the world, which, if brought together under ESDP, would offer great advantages for power projection."