Brussels, 28/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 28 April, the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) put forward a joint communication on adapting the EU's current instruments to help partner countries strengthen their security and defence capabilities, particularly by paving the way for EU provisions of non-lethal equipment.
The key proposal in this communication is to make it possible to finance the provision of non-lethal equipment - such as “ambulances, force protection equipment or communication means” - to the military forces of third countries as part of the common security and defence policy (CSDP) mission activities. The proposal is based on several pilot projects conducted by European training and advisory missions in Mali and Somalia. The purpose of the projects was to assess the feasibility of such provisions by the EU, while identifying the donors, needs and risks.
While the idea has been launched to make these deliveries a reality, not just a concept, the source of their funding has yet to be determined. With regard to the political sensitivity of the subject and differing legal interpretations as regards the possibility of funding the provisions from the EU budget, the Commission and EEAS today proposed several options, with the choice having to be made by the member states - after consulting the European Parliament, as this issue is of a budgetary nature.
The communication, which was put forward at the same time as the European programme for security for 2015-2020 (see other article), thus lists several options including the implementation of “a new instrument dedicated to security capacity-building in partner countries”, adapting the African Peace Facility to address its limitations, or “establishing a new facility linking peace, security and development in the framework of one or more of the existing instruments”.
It is now up to the foreign affairs ministers, who are meeting on 18 May, to assess these three options and propose a solution to the heads of state and government for the European Council in June - which will be largely dedicated to defence issues. (Jan Kordys)