Geoffrey Howe: Europe and America have nothing to gain from discord

From the Pilgrims' Reflections lecture by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, given in Fleet Street, London

The transatlantic partnership needs to be rebalanced both ways, with Americans taking far more account of the need for legitimacy, for partnership, for mobilising world opinion and for working within the United Nations. And with Europeans doing far more to pull their weight together and on the global stage - not just in the formulation of effective foreign policy but also in greatly enhanced defence co-operation. In no way would that be intended to, or have the effect of, pitting Europe against the United States, in some kind of challenge.

We must surely move on from the days when sincere and serious efforts to produce an integrated and effective European defence and security capability, set in the context of the transatlantic partnership, are characterised as "foolish and dangerous". Surely we can agree, on both sides of the Atlantic, that there can be no joy in perceiving or promoting discord between so-called "old" and "new" Europe?

Surely we can now bury the notion that the emergence of a credible and effective European foreign policy position and defence capability must intuitively be regarded as hostile to the United States.

We must develop a solid and open framework of transatlantic trust and mutual confidence. Neither of these features will be easy to deliver, still less to maintain, in today's turbulent world. But both of them are essential to the unique quality and dependability of the relationship between the two pilgrim nations, the United Kingdom and the United States.