Luxembourg, 26/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - Defence ministers of EU member states have reached a unanimous agreement aimed at greater “institutional formalisation” of their meetings, Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon told the press on Monday 26 April. Spain currently holds the rotating EU presidency. In line with a compromise reached during discussions leading up to the Council, defence ministers' meetings will remain within the framework of the General Affairs Council although it is not to be ruled out that they may, in future, benefit from “autonomy of decision” in certain areas that fall within their scope, it was pointed out by Hervé Morin, French Defence Minister. Speaking to the press, Morin nonetheless underlined the fact that the outlines of such a decision have still to be defined. Work with a view to making such a decision formal should be continued under Belgian Council Presidency (during the second half of 2010), Morin said.
The Council is above all expected to specify whether such meetings can take place according to a timetable that is different to that of the foreign ministers' meetings, as well as the areas in which defence ministers would enjoy autonomous decision-making (see EUROPE 10125). One course envisaged would be to authorise defence ministers (from a formal point of view, the decision concerning defence ministers' meetings should be approved by the Foreign Affairs Council or by the General Affairs Council) to take decisions in areas strictly relating to the portfolio held by defence ministers, especially with regard to capabilities. Morin also highlighted other examples such as maritime surveillance or decisions relating to defence research funding in the context of the European Commission's future framework programme for research (see below). On the other hand, the fact that this decision on planning and the launching of CSDP operations is entrusted to defence ministers seems to pose problems, some sources believe.
At the beginning of the morning's work, defence ministers took part in the Steering Board of the European Defence Agency (EDA), holding a first discussion on the report by the Wise Pen concerning maritime surveillance. The report, developed on the basis of far-reaching consultation headed by five European vice admirals (Fernando del Pozo of Spain, Anthony Dymock of Britain, Lutz Feldt of Germany, Patrick Hebrard of France and Ferdinando Sanfelice di Monteforte of Italy) calls for information to be shared and for more coherent and transparent intelligence between civil and military representatives of the maritime community in order to ensure security and safety in European waters. “Security lies not in secrecy but in transparency”, the president of the Wise Pen group, Lutz Feldt, told the press. The report recommends the gradual setting in place of a transregional and interinstitutional network for information exchange, based on instruments already in existence (such as the Automatic Identification Systems, LINUX, etc.). Gradual implementation of this project should allow information and intelligence to be shared on a voluntary basis between national maritime coordination centres. Integration at national level could then be enlarged at regional levels with the regional coordination centres that already exist. At the institutional level, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) could be the backbone of the system. At regional level, such a role could, for example, be entrusted to the regional centre dedicated to the Mediterranean. Furthermore, the Council also entrusted the EU high representative to undertake work with a view to possibly developing a maritime safety strategy at world level and setting up a working group responsible for this. The work should be jointly headed by the Council and the European Commission, with the assistance of the European Defence Agency. During its meeting, the EDA Steering Board also approved the launch of a research programme with a view to reducing the threats linked to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The project, to be financed by the EDA operational budget, provides for the design, by mid-2011, of a mobile forensic research laboratory on IEDs. France will be the framework nation for this project, with support from Poland. Members of he EDA also showed their interest during a meeting with European Commission representatives for the possibility, opened by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, of funding defence research from the Community budget.
As far as operations are concerned, EU defence ministers mainly tackled the Afghan issue and better coordination between the EU police mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL) and NATO. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who attended the meeting, told the press that he had put proposals to the EU defence ministers to bolster cooperation between the two organisations. The proposals mainly concern “division of labour”, with EU action “focusing on civilian aspects” of the police such as crime investigation or the legal system, while NATO would be responsible for “operational areas” and the development of “civil order police” of the gendarmerie kind, Rasmussen said.
He also said that he had invited European trainers to become more involved in the activities of NATO regional training centres and enhance collaboration between the EU and NATO in Kabul by coordinating, for example, “advice to the Ministry of the Interior”. The Council agreed that negotiations on piracy should be pursued with Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda with a view to concluding agreements on the transfer of persons captured by the EU naval force off the Somali coast (EU NAVFOR Atalanta) committing acts of piracy. (A.By./transl.jl)