Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

12 December 2003

ESDP

• AP quotes diplomats saying EU leaders agreed Friday on plans to boost the EU’s ability to mount military operations, with or without help from NATO. The dispatch adds that under the new agreement, the EU will set up a defense planning cell based at SHAPE to run European missions with help from the Alliance. The EU will boost its existing military staff in Brussels with more planning officers to coordinate military missions run by national headquarters when NATO is not involved. NATO liaison officers will be based at the EU.

The agreement on European defense is generating high interest.
The BBC World Service stressed that the new deal, welcomed by NATO Secretary General Robertson, means making the NATO planning staff “the first port of call” before consulting the EU staff.
The Times observes that the deal “includes an embryonic EU military headquarters, but with sufficient caveats that it allays U.S. and British fears that it might duplicate (SHAPE).”
The Independent highlights that under the agreement, the EU will be able to have an autonomous military planning capability, but that will not become a standing headquarters. The newspaper adds: “The deal means the main option for planning European military operations will be to site them in national headquarters in Britain, France, Germany, Italy or Greece. But where no headquarters is nominated, the EU planning cell in Brussels could be made operational. That would have ‘responsibility for generating the capacity to plan and run the operation,’ according to a document circulated Thursday night.”
“UK officials describe the proposed EU military planning cell as having a skeleton staff that will be employed only as a ‘last resort.’ As a further concession to the U.S., the EU has agreed that NATO can have a permanent liaison office at EU military headquarters in Brussels,” notes The Guardian. The newspaper adds that the defense proposal is not in the draft EU constitution, but it has been negotiated in parallel with it.
While Brussels’ Le Soir stresses that under the new deal, “the natural choice for a military operation remains NATO,” the Financial Times considers that with the defense deal, the EU is taking a decisive step toward sharpening its defense capabilities. “Although the EU planning unit will initially comprise only 20-30 officers, the principle has now been established to allow Europe to develop a stronger military identity,” the newspaper suggests.

• In a contribution to the International Herald Tribune, Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, views the European Security Strategy expected to be adopted at the EU summit. “The security strategy is made credible by the notion of capability. Today’s security threats demand more mobile, more flexible military forces. To achieve this, we must find more resources for defense. There is no alternative, no easy option. Collectively, Europeans already spend 160 billion Euros a year on defense. We will also have to use these resources wisely, reducing duplication, filling gaps and adapting our capabilities to meet new challenges such as terrorism,” Solana writes and continues: “Europe’s partnership with the United States is irreplaceable. It has underpinned our progressive integration and our security. NATO is an important expression of the relationship and a close strategic partner for crisis management. Though the United States is today’s dominant military actor, it cannot tackle today’s complex problems on its own. I believe that our security will depend more—not less—on an effective multilateral system, a rule-based international order and well-functioning international institutions…. Our ambition is a Europe more active and more capable; an articulate and persuasive champion of effective multilateralism; a regional actor and a global ally. For all these reasons, the European Security Strategy marks a crucial development for Europe.”

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS

• According to AP, EU foreign affairs chief Solana joined the chorus of criticism Friday over the U.S. decision to bar opponents of the Iraq war from reconstruction contracts but said the issue would not affect transatlantic relations. Solana reportedly stressed that the dispute would not impede the rapprochement between the EU and Washington following disagreements over the war. “That difficulty is overcome. A long time has elapsed since the crisis started. We are now in a very good atmosphere,” he insisted.