UK ‘Must Plan for Euro Collapse’
March 8th, 2012Via: BBC:
Ministers should draw up plans to deal with a break-up of the eurozone “as a matter of urgency”, a committee of MPs and peers has warned.
The joint committee on the government’s National Security Strategy (NSS) said the full or partial collapse of the single currency was “plausible”.
It said political unrest and a rise in economic migrant numbers could result.
“Long-term security” is at the heart of foreign policy thinking, the government said in response.
The committee, whose members include ex-MI5 director general Baroness Manningham-Buller, said economic instability could leave the UK “unable to defend itself”.
It added that governments across the EU could be forced to cut defence spending if the instability were to continue.
“International economic problems could lead to our allies having to make considerable cuts to their defence spending, and to an increase in economic migrants between EU member states, and to domestic social or political unrest,” it said.
And, while the committee welcomed the government’s decision to publish the NSS alongside the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, it said that “a clear over-arching strategy” had not yet emerged.
Research Credit: Timbooch
