On Tuesday 6 March, the defence ministers of the 25 countries participating in permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) formally adopted the list of 17 first collaborative cooperation projects.
The project with the largest number of participants brings together 24 states (all participating except Ireland) and relates to military mobility. The smallest projects have only two participant states and concern the European Training Certification Centre for European Armies and support for EuroArtillery. By way of example, the European Medical Command, a network of logistic hubs in Europe and operations support, a platform for information sharing on cybernetic threats and response to incidents, and a European Union Training Mission Competence Centre are other projects validated (the complete list is available at: http://bit.ly/2Hazdem ).
Ministers also adopted a recommendation concerning a roadmap for PESCO implementation which aims to provide “strategic direction and guidance” for its implementation, including with regards to projects.
In this recommendation, which is legally non-binding, the ministers specify that member states participating in cooperation “should make substantial efforts to define objectives and timelines for each project”. The list of projects should be updated in November 2018 “at the latest” to include a new series of projects. After this, every year, a call for new project proposals will be launched early May so that the procedure for assessing the projects is completed, in principle, by November. The Council considers assessment of the proposals for PESCO projects should follow transparent criteria bearing not only on capabilities but also on the operational aspect.
In addition, the Council considers that a common set of governance rules for collaborative projects should be adopted in “June 2018 at the latest” and should “provide a framework to ensure coherent and compatible project implementation”. Ministers deem that it is also necessary to clarify the roles and responsibilities of participating member states, including what is involved by being the project leader country or on the possibility of being an observer country to the project, a national source states. In June, “at the latest”, the Council will again take up the matter of the coordination functions of member states participating in the context of the projects.
“In principle”, by the end of the year, member states participating in PESCO will adopt a decision establishing the conditions whereby third countries could be invited to take part “exceptionally” in given projects. “The work to develop these general conditions should start as soon as the common set of governance rules for the projects and the sequencing of the fulfilment of commitment are in place by June 2018 at the latest”. The national source summed up by saying: “We want to know how one does this and, by the end of the year, how third countries are involved”.
The Council should also adopt “by June 2018, another recommendation defining the different phases in implementation of commitments for the 2018-2020 and 2021-2025 phases and determining more specific objectives, including commitments to be met by 2020”. According to a member state source, this is a sequence of commitments, with a certain number of them to be carried out over the 2018-2020 period and the others over the 2021-2025 period. The recommendation should also establish indicators aimed at helping participating member states to meet the commitments taken and to assess progress made in this respect.
Further to the adoption of the second recommendation, member states should “re-examine and, where necessary, update their plans for implementation (of commitments) in consequence” by 10 January 2019 at the latest. As of 2020, these plans should be passed on to the PESCO secretariat by 10 January of each year at the latest. In the meantime, the secretariat is invited to provide, by the end of the month, the first information feedback on the type, details and structure of information in those plans. This could help to improve the quality of the plans of applicant countries.
At the end of the first phase, i.e. end 2020, the Council will update and strengthen, if necessary, the most binding commitments given in the decision of 11 December 2017, “in the light of results obtained within the PESCO framework”. Early 2021, the Council should adopt a second set of more specific objectives for the period 2021-2025.
According to the recommendation, the EU High Representative should make an annual report setting out the details of the state of progress of PESCO implementation, and especially fulfilment by each member state of its commitments, in line with its national implementation plan. Her first report will be published in April 2019 or “at least, before the relevant Foreign Affairs Council is held during the first half of 2019”, the recommendation states, going on to add that, as of 2020, the annual report should be presented in March or April. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)