Brussels, 30/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday 31 January, the European response to the political, security and humanitarian crisis in Mali will once again be on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council, but this time just for an update to be included by the Council in its conclusions. With French and African soldiers having taken control of Kidal, the third-largest Islamist bastion in the north of the country, EU ministers will take stock of the situation with regard, amongst other things, to the state of progress with preparations for the deployment of the EUTM Mali training mission for the Malian Armed Forces, and the international meeting of the Mali support group chaired by Catherine Ashton, to be held in Brussels on 5 February to discuss the implementation of the roadmap to take back the north of the country and organise elections (see EUROPE 10774).
“The discussions will not take long, because the follow-up to the extraordinary Council of 17 January is still underway. The Council of 18 February will be more substantial”, senior EU officials announced on Wednesday. It is on this date that the deployment of EUTM Mali will be decided upon. At the time of writing, between 12 and 15 member states have proposed contributions to the protection force of this mission, “but we still have to adjust the proposals to the precise needs”, these sources explained.
The commitment of €50 million announced on Tuesday by the EU at the conference of donors on Mali (Addis Ababa) to fund the non-military expenditure of the African support mission in Mali (MISMA) will not be increased for the time being, even though there are now talks of a force of between 3,000 and 8,000 soldiers. “This commitment of €50 million was announced yesterday. We are moving forward on this basis. There are no extra resources at this stage”.
Horn of Africa: following the exchange of views with the Somali President, who was invited to the launch of the session (see previous article), the Council will adopt conclusions on Somalia and the Horn of Africa. (AN/transl.fl)