Dear Editor,
Gordon Rees (30th November, letters) argues that it is NATO, not the EU, that has kept the peace in Europe. But Mr Rees (and not your previous correspondent Mr Arbour) is long on rhetoric and short on facts.
NATO was a military alliance formed to deter an external threat. It failed to prevent a war between two of its own members (Greece and Turkey) and allowed a fascist dictatorships to be a member (Portugal until 1974).
It is the EU that has built lasting cooperation among its member countries, creating common economic interests through the common market, promoting exchanges of trade, people and services and co-operating in all kinds of matters from the environment to transport. War is now unthinkable between EU countries, not because of the NATO military alliance against an outside threat, but because the reconciliation and friendship that has been developed among us.
Yours,
Richard Corbett
Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
Blenheim Terrace, Leeds
|