Paris, 01/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption, on Tuesday 30 November, of the report by Françoise Hostalier (France, Federated Group) and Andrea Rigoni (Italy, Liberal Group), the WEU Assembly of national parliamentarians recommended that member states continue to study the best way to ensure the EU has an appropriate Operation Headquarters (OHQ). The report, which relates to the planning and conduct of EU operations, also recommends strengthening the operations centre of the EU headquarters and making it permanent for the planning and conduct of small, albeit urgent, operations (such as the implementation of battlegroups or the evacuation of nationals). Strengthening would lead to the operations centre in Brussels having a permanent core of 45 to 50 officers. This would be bolstered in the event of crisis, which would allow the nation-framework system to be reviewed in the future. The Assembly also recommends that constant improvements be made to civil-military cooperation and that the EEAS have a military command chain for crisis management.
“The first difficulty with regards a common defence is to harmonise the guarantee of national sovereignties and ensure a balanced pooling of military and diplomatic means” and “ensure the role of Europe alongside other structures or other partners”, for example “NATO on one side and Russia on the other”, Hostalier said as she introduced the report. She went on to underline, moreover, the commitments of the European Council in Helsinki (1999) which highlighted its determination to develop autonomous decision-making and, when NATO is not engaged, to initiate and conduct military operations under EU leadership in response to international crises. Rigoni, for his part, pointed out that the EU should be ready to face up to crises and terrorist attack, at least on its territory. Despite the need to sometimes seek ad hoc solutions for specific operations, all EU missions are “planned and conducted” to meet the needs of the crisis as closely as possible, said Claude-France Arnould, who heads the Crisis Management Planning Directorate (CMPD). “We are aware of the weaknesses” and that is why “a first-rate analysis” is needed of the solutions, she warned during her speech on behalf of Catherine Ashton. (Aby./transl.jl)