Brussels, 11/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the European Parliament's subcommittee on defence and security on Thursday 10 December, Sweden's permanent representative with the Political and Security Committee (PSC), Olof Skoog, said he was “quite happy” with the results of the Swedish EU Presidency with regard to European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Avoiding making proposals concerning the future European External Action Service (EEAS), he nonetheless stressed that security policy should come under “collective ownership” of member states and that there should be “interaction” between member states and the high representative, especially when it comes to resources and the veto on action. He also pointed out that the ambition of the Swedish Presidency, whose term of office comes to an end on 31 December, “was not to launch high level political initiatives” but rather to make up for any deficiencies. Thus, under its presidency, Sweden has focused its effort on facilitating deployment of civilian personnel in ESDP missions, as well as on battlegroups.
For civilian capabilities, the Presidency has reviewed the concept of Civilian Response Teams (CRT) for speedy intervention in the event of crisis. Nearly 200 national civilian crisis management experts have, at this stage, been preselected to make up these teams. Their training has been harmonised and their field of expertise extended to new areas: medical expertise, senior management, police administration and project development. The Presidency has also begun work which should in time result in the setting up of a permanent general warehouse that would allow equipment to be stocked and, if necessary, to be used again after being employed in missions. As a trial and for a temporary period only, the EU will, from January 2010, set up a warehouse of this kind with the EU police mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (EUPM). A major breakthrough has been made relating to the funding of ESDP civilian missions. Under its mandate, Sweden has managed to include two new chapters along Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) lines in the EU budget providing funding for pre-deployment training, as well as needs assessment. The financial regulation on this is due to be reviewed in 2010. Still in order to facilitate deployment of civilian missions, the Presidency took stock of framework contracts, set in place after the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia). At this stage, the European Commission has concluded two such contracts, with about 10 more underway in various fields (armoured vehicles, support vehicles, telecommunications, health insurance and security insurance, etc). On the subject of the conceptual framework, the Presidency has made progress with regard to the deployment of police missions and also on the need to ensure that civilian missions have the qualified personnel they require. “There are serious shortfalls” in this field, said Skoog, mainly highlighting the need to train civilian personnel.
As far as the military chapter is concerned, Olof Skoog mainly highlighted the adoption by the Council on 17 November of guidelines for improving the flexibility and employability of battlegroups which, in some circumstances (if necessary and if approved by unanimity), allow a battlegroup to be used for missions other than those foreseen in the concept (i.e. to stop the gap when there are shortfalls in the force generation process or to serve as a strategic standby reserve for ESDP operations). Confirming Sweden's view that battlegroups are an important crisis management tool, Skoog welcomed this “first discussion” between member states. He also highlighted the success of another initiative put forward by Stockholm in the field of maritime surveillance (See EUROPE No 9987) and stressed the progress made in relation to the European defence industry. Sweden has mainly worked to promote a more transparent and more open defence market and has managed to have a policy statement adopted by the Council on setting up a level playing field for the defence market. The European Defence Agency is responsible for preparing a roadmap on this (Document No 2523). Mr Skoog also emphasised: - the need to develop more synergies between the civilian and military chapters (including research, endorsed by member states); - strengthened cooperation with EU strategic partners: - the African Union especially with regard to Somalia, the United Nations including with a view to modernising UN peacekeeping missions, and NATO where progress must be made at the level of practical cooperation and at high political level, allowing interaction between the NATO secretary general and the EU high representative; - and third countries (United States, Canada, Russia, New Zealand, Chile, Dominican Republic, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland and others) that wish to contribute to ESDP missions. (A.By./transl.jl)