SIR -- R G Spencer looks forward to my "denials" regarding his claims about who keeps the peace in Europe. I am happy to oblige. It is indeed NATO that has kept the external peace between Europe and the outside world, with considerable help from Ronald Reagan. It is not NATO that has stopped, or could stop, internal civil wars among its members. It is the EU that was specifically set up for this purpose, to make the various European economies so interdependent as to make further European wars "not just impossible but unthinkable". Whatever its weaknesses and limitations, it should be given credit for that.

His further assertion, that "disparate peoples coming together for the supposed common good" will just cause unrest, is another distortion. New countries -- including those from the Balkans which he mentions -- actually want to join. Most of the 10 new countries that joined in May 2004 did so after sizeable votes in favour by their own people. Despite that, the UK Independence Party voted in the European Parliament against them joining. Politicians should be supporting democracy, not saying they know better.

PHILIP BUSHILL-MATTHEWS, MEP European Parliament, Brussels.