[Barrie Yates]

Originally Posted by Lucysgirl

Conversely, I would think the Remain camp could use that as a reason to stay in order to Veto any move where the EU Commission could make a botch up of the Defence of Europe. There are 28 EU members and 28 NATO members. If the EU member countries left NATO that would just leave the UK, Canada and the USA in NATO.

I've just had a look to see who are members of NATO and was surprised to see France is back in the fold as I know they left in 1967 to take control of their own defence, which was when NATO moved its HQ from Paris to the Netherlands. I reckon France has persuaded Mrs Merkel that the EU should have an integral defence force.

It is unlikely that many of the the EU countries would want to withdraw from NATO - they would lose considerable finance paid by the US to maintain bases and personnel in their countries and the defence umbrella would no longer cover them - The NATO creed is that an attack on any NATO country is an attack on the whole of NATO.
Cost is another significant factor - how much would countries have to spend on defence if they are without the support provided by the USA, UK and Canada.