Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

24 October 2003

ESDP

• According to AFP, Prime Minister Blair insisted Thursday that Europe must have its own defense capability. Blair reportedly told a news conference in London: “I’m absolutely the strongest ally the U.S. can have but I know there will be certain situations when, for perfectly good reasons, the United States does not want to undertake military operations. The EU, in these circumstances has got to have the capability to do so.” While reiterating that Europe has no intention of developing a European force in competition with NATO, Blair reportedly added: “It’ important to carry on with European defense. I’m not giving up the ability of Europe to have a proper defense capability in circumstances when NATO or America is not to be engaged.”

The Daily Telegraph claims that a document obtained by Britain’s Conservative Party shows a long-term goal of the German military high command is the creation of a fully fledged European army that would report to an EU government and be financed by the European Parliament. According to the newspaper, the document reflects a common view at the highest levels of the German military that the only way to achieve efficient and effective defense in Europe, where spending on the military is far lower than in America, is the full pooling of national resources. It says plans for an EU army should be based on the “democratic principles” defined by the Convention on the Future of Europe, which drew up the draft EU Constitution. The article stresses that the memorandum, which reportedly reflects the long-term thinking of many German politicians and military officials, acknowledges the need to define the future relationship with NATO.
Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, Oct. 22, urged pragmatism in the U.S.-EU debate on European defense. The newspaper wrote: “The debate on a European army … has gathered speed over recent days, after the European government leaders included it in their regular discussions and because it is an important subject within the present debate on the European (draft) Constitution…. This has not only attracted the attention of EU member states, but also that of the United States and … NATO. The question in short and to the point: Is a European army alongside NATO possible and desirable? Will not the one destroy the other? The new EU Constitution offers ample scope for the EU to have its own defense policy, its own army and the possibility of military cooperation between the EU countries. This scope will certainly be used, however difficult the negotiations on common defense may prove. Decision-making in the EU is always laborious, but progress is always ultimately achieved. Ultimately, Europe will have its own defense policy. It is included in the draft Constitution by virtue of the desire for self-defense if it is needed. Without such a policy, the EU remains primarily an economic entity…. But duplicating NATO remains a danger and is undesirable. Nobody wants dual offices with dual staffs and bureaucracy and unclear command in the field. In organizational and financial terms that would be a monstrosity. A glimpse of this is revealed by the disastrous plan … to set up a headquarters in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, for European army missions independently of NATO. The Eastern European states certainly do not want to break from the Alliance. They see the United States and NATO as their security umbrella, not the EU with all its military inadequacies and cuts in national defense budgets. Washington reacted with excessive panic to European defense plans.”
Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny, Oct. 21, opined that united European forces are not to the detriment of NATO. “If NATO is really an organization of sovereign countries, it can also be an association where some EU countries will have joint military forces. The Alliance can function like this,” said the daily. It continued: If the United States were to claim the opposite and wish back the Europe of the past, it would go against the march of history. The Union is developing and enlarging politically. It wants to be more independent and to be heard. This is neither to the detriment of the cause nor to that of America.
A commentary in Berlin’s Die Tageszeitung, Oct. 22, considered meanwhile that NATO is the only way to “contain” the United States. The newspaper said: “Assurances that EU military structures should, naturally, not compete with NATO do not become any more credible with repetition…. In the medium term, dual structures are foreseeable and unavoidable. This will lead to another weakening of NATO…. Anyone who rejects wars of attack and a hegemonic world order cannot regard this as a reason for satisfaction…. Of course, global conditions are welcome, under which majorities decide and under which the hegemonic power is engaged but nevertheless bows to the demands of the majority. But neither the world nor the United States are so constructed at the moment. If there is a modest hope of being able to contain Washington, then there is currently no alternative to NATO. An independent EU security policy makes it easier for the United States to shrug its shoulders and ignore the Alliance. An ominous prospect.”

BALKANS

• According to The Independent, the Serb authorities said Thursday they had failed to arrest top war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic after a hunt in Belgrade and four small towns in Serbia. The newspaper quotes sources in Belgrade saying members of Serbia’s elite Gendarmerie and Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ) mounted simultaneous raids in two Belgrade suburbs and the provincial towns of Uzice, Bajina Basta, Priboj and Valjevo.