Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

23 September 2003

ESDP

Media continue to focus on a meeting in Berlin at the weekend between Chancellor Schroeder, President Chirac and Prime Minister Blair. Blair’s backing of EU plans for more cooperation on defense is under media scrutiny.
Describing Britain’s position as an effort to cut tensions over European defense, the Financial Times quotes diplomats saying London’s decision to cooperate more closely with France and Germany on defense is designed to prevent damaging disagreements at next month’s intergovernmental conference on the European Union constitution. By dropping its objections to the EU creating its own planning structures for missions independent of NATO, adds the article, London is recognizing the need to break the deadlock over European defense. The article claims that in return for Britain’s compromise, Berlin and Paris went some way in assuring London that structured cooperation would be “transparent,” more flexible in how it was established and would cooperate with NATO. In addition, Berlin and France softened their positions on collective defense, whereby member states would defend each other if any were attacked. Instead, in a paper circulated to the three leaders before their trilateral summit, they agreed that NATO, not the EU, was the basis for the collective defense of its members. The newspaper recalls that Britain has always argued that since NATO’s Article 5 provides the guarantee for collective defense, it was illogical to duplicate, particularly since it would inevitably lead to the EU loosening its links with NATO.
Diplomats confirmed last night that Prime Minister Blair had signaled a significant shift during Saturday’s Berlin meeting with Chancellor Schroeder and President Chirac, writes The Guardian, adding: “Downing Street insisted that the government still saw NATO as the bedrock of European defense, but it is now clear that Britain is prepared to be more flexible than before…. Britain remains opposed to controversial plans by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to set up a new EU military headquarters at Tervuren outside Brussels, but it now acknowledges that so-called ‘structured cooperation’ should be possible. Such cooperation would let any members of the EU who wanted to forge ahead with defense initiatives without waiting for the agreement of non-participants such as Britain.” The article notes that defense experts were baffled by the UK shift, seen as a move to restore Anglo-French relations and to underline Britain’s pro-Europe credentials.
A text agreed at the Berlin summit does not resolve the vexed issue of how to set up EU military planning, remarks The Independent. The article adds, however, that a proposal to establish an EU planning facility at Tervuren and Britain’s counterproposal to have the EU planning cell at SHAPE headquarters will now be considered along with the possibility of beefing up military planning headquarters in Britain, France or Germany. “Even French and German diplomats agree the Tervuren project has become so politically charged that it can never become an EU military planning center and some believe another site must be found,” notes the daily.
Britain continues to want to locate the EU planning cell at SHAPE, said a related article in Le Figaro, Sept. 22. The article reported that Blair, Chirac and Schroeder had promised to “look for ways” to get out of the problem. Suggesting that “this will be very difficult and success is not guaranteed,” the newspaper speculated that perhaps the existing national headquarters in Creil, London and Postdam can be “Europeanized,” in accordance with an idea, which circulated at the end of August.

• In a commentary published in French daily Le Monde, Sept. 22, EU foreign policy chief Solana set the development of good governance around the EU, respect of the UN Charter and preventive engagement abroad as the EU’s top security goals. The EU would seek to “extend the security zone around Europe, create a circle of good governance on its eastern borders—from the Balkans to the Caucasus and along the Mediterranean perimeter,” Solana wrote. Secondly, he urged Europeans to “be prepared to act … if the principles of the UN Charter are flouted,” notably by “furthering the emergence of a more stable and more equitable international order.” Solana named as his final priority the effective handling of transnational threats through a “systematic policy of preventive engagement, whether in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Bosnia and in the south Caucasus.” In order to fulfill these goals, he said, EU members had to work toward the reinforcement of their military and civilian capabilities, better policy coordination and improved cross-border cooperation. Concluding, he stressed: “But improved capabilities and coherence are not enough unless Europe strengthens relations with its strategic partners. The transatlantic link, in particular, is irreplaceable. Our security and the effectiveness of our common fight against threats depend on the strength and balance of that relationship.”
  
  
• According to Brussels’ Eurobserver.com, the EU will soon demand its own permanent seat on the UN Security Council as part of a wide-ranging reform paper to be presented to the European Parliament this week. The paper reportedly proposes that four new permanent seats be established, one for the EU and one for a representative of Africa, Latin America and Asia. This would bring the number of permanent members of the Security Council to nine. The document also suggests a reform of the veto system. Noting that under the present system, any one country can veto a UN resolution, the report adds that the EU is set to propose a “double veto” system, whereby two countries would need to use their power of veto to block a resolution from being passed.

NATO-RUSSIA COUNCIL

• Moscow’s Interfax reports the Russian General Staff has proposed providing information about defense spending to the NATO-Russia Council. The dispatch quotes a Russian government source saying the initiative was proposed by Chief of the General Staff Gen. Kvashnin and submitted to Prime Minister Kasyanov. Kvashnin reportedly argued that this initiative would broaden cooperation between Russia and NATO within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council. “NATO’s member-countries regularly exchange reports on defense spending. Russia could join this process,” Gen. Kvashnin reportedly said. According to the dispatch, he noted that Russia submits annual reports on military spending to the UN and the OSCE, but no procedure or schedule exists for submitting the same information to NATO.

OTHER NEWS

• A Belgian court Tuesday threw out an appeal against a decision to send a war crimes complaint against U.S. Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks on to the United States, reports AP. According to the dispatch, the court ruled the decision to send the case on to Washington could not be appealed and declared the case was beyond its competence. “There simply was no legal provision to appeal that,” the dispatch quotes a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecution’s Office saying. The dispatch recalls that the original complaint against Gen. Franks was filed by 19 civilians wounded or bereaved in the Iraq war. The case against Gen. Franks, and other complains under a Belgian universal jurisdiction law against President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Powell have cooled diplomatic relations between Belgium and Washington earlier this year. It even threatened Belgium’s role as host to NATO, the dispatch stresses.