Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

In 1957, the European Union was founded to facilitate economic and trade cooperation among six founding European members, with the ready support of the United States. Since then, a cacophony of integrationist and centralizing EU policies has added a deep political dimension to the European project, most notably the modern-day EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Brussels is actively constructing a “speak with one voice” approach to foreign policy whereby nation states will pool sovereign policy making at the EU level. Several instruments and agencies already exist to enact the CFSP, overseen by the EU’s foreign policy “High Representative” Javier Solana.

What does this mean for America’s traditional allies in Europe, such as Britain? The deep political integration of the EU, presided over by its own supranational legal authority, has trumped nation-state sovereign decision-making and degraded important elements of the transatlantic alliance. What does this mean for the United States and for NATO? A single European foreign policy determined by Brussels, with a common defense structure, represents the biggest geopolitical change in transatlantic affairs in half a century.

Three British Conservative Party Members of the European Parliament will give us their perspectives and what it means for the UK-U.S. Special Relationship.