Palma, 25/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting in Palma in Majorca on Thursday 25 February, chaired by Carme Chacon, defence ministers from European Union member states relaunched the idea that had already formulated of setting up a Council grouping to enable them to meet regularly within a formal framework for implementing the common security and defence policy (CSDP). Catherine Ashton did not participate at the meeting in Palma but has been invited to present concrete proposals for the Jumbo Council on 26-27 April, in Luxembourg. Discussions appear to exclude the creation of an additional Council grouping (such a creation would imply modification of an internal Council Regulation, currently limiting the number of groupings to 10). Even though modalities still have to be discussed, it would appear that it will be possible to make progress towards the setting up of a second European Affairs Council grouping, which will be presided over by the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.
Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, several ministers have discussed implementation of permanent structured cooperation (PSC). Hervé Morin considers that this kind of co-operation is not simply a matter of defining a few vague criteria. It should be accompanied by a permanent planning capability, explained the French minister. He also affirmed that the idea was not to set up a rival to SHAPE but to be able to deploy tactical groups in the space of just a few days when a crisis situation demands it (he mentioned the example of Haiti, adding, “we have a common future, a common identity and common values. We need a common European defence”). The German secretary of state, Christian Schmidt, said that he wanted PSC to include small member states, whereas the Polish minister, Bogdan Klich, asserted that he wanted member states to make rapid progress towards respect for criteria and commitments included in the Lisbon Treaty for participating in PSC.
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ministers discussed the expected transition towards a gradual reduction of the executive ALTHEA mission and the setting up of an advisory and assistance Council to the Bosnian forces, but failed to reach an agreement on the modalities and definitive timetable in this connection. In this context, the commander for this operation, General John McColl, warned against making any brutal reductions in the number of servicemen involved in the operation. A compromise should be found during the Jumbo Council in Luxembourg between the states that want rapid deployment and those that are seeking a more gradualist approach.
Somalia. Ministers discussed the Atalanta operation in fighting piracy. They welcomed the results of this operation and some of them called for it to be continued next year and in 2012. There was also emphasis on the need for negotiating and concluding new agreements with African countries (South Africa, Tanzania and Mauritius, in particular) in an effort to bring pirates intercepted to justice (last December, Kenya explained that it had insufficient capacity for transferring pirates intercepted by a Dutch ship, which led to their release) The Spanish minister also highlighted the necessity of “port surveillance and control” in areas where the pirates set off from. In addition to the Atalanta operation, the EU is preparing to launch the EUTM mission for training Somali security forces in Uganda. On Tuesday 23 February, the Political and Security Committee agreed the operations concept for this mission (CONOPS), which is due to be launched on 22 March (initial capacity -IOC - is expected to be reached at the beginning of April and plenary capacity - FOC - by mid April) and to begin training by the end of April/beginning of May. Several member states have announced that they will contribute to EUTM: Spain (15 officers at high command and 30 instructors), Greece (5 experts), United Kingdom (1 planner and officers), Portugal (17 trainers). Other countries have promised contributions but have not provided any figures: Germany (this is expected to be between 25-30 instructors), France (a personnel of 30 has been mentioned), Italy, and Belgium, in particular. A force generation conference takes place this Friday.
Haiti. Although this is not an EU operation, ministers held an exchange of views on assistance provided to Haiti, following the earthquake on 12 January. Around 2000 soldiers, police and European experts (including 450 Spanish personnel) are currently contributing to security, assistance and rehabilitation operations in this suffering country. The Belgian minister, Pieter De Crem, underlined the need for the EU to develop an emergency capability based on the Belgian B-Fast model. Anyu Angelov from Bulgaria mentioned the use of EU tactical groups (GT-1500) in these kinds of circumstances.
The Spanish minister, Carme Chacon, and her Bulgarian counterpart regretted the absence of Catherine Ashton. The French minister of defence informed a group of journalists that the absence of the European Commission vice president, who is also high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, had been widely remarked upon. He also underlined the fact that this was the first meeting of defence ministers since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and that in the absence of Ashton, substantial discussions on the EU-NATO relations had only taken place in the presence of NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The Dutch secretary of state, Jack de Vries, did not fail to point out the positive attendance of Javier Solana at the defence ministers meetings and also underlined the absence of Baroness Ashton. (O.J./transl.fl)