Rear Admiral Hervé Bléjean, the new Director General of the EU Military Staff (EUMS) and Operations Commander, and Head of the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), argued on Monday 16 November for the establishment of the European Peace Facility.
“From my military point of view, the ‘European Peace Facility’ is exactly the instrument that we need. This would make it possible to broaden the scope of common funding for missions a little, but above all to provide more concrete assistance to the forces we support”, he explained to the members of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence.
“If we refuse to supply the weapons to those we train, others will do it. An army responsible for ensuring the security of citizens without weaponry, because we have ideological scruples, it makes no sense”, warned Admiral Bléjean. Thus, according to him, the Central African army lacks everything, “including basic weapons and ammunition”, and the supply of arms is the main reason for the Russian presence there. “They came to deliver what we were unable to provide”, explained the EUMS Director.
The new director of MPCC, who took office on 1 July, also reviewed the situation of the organisation he heads. Although it has “validated its place as a military command and control capability at the military-strategic level and has added value to EU military crisis management, as part of a wider effort to strengthen the EU’s role as a provider of civil-military security”, the MPCC is understaffed. “We are not there, we continue to suffer from understaffing”, he regretted.
The permanent structure has only 60 personnel (26 of whom are women) and, according to the Admiral, 14 vacancies, “making up 1/4” of the preferred staff. By comparison, he says, the Allies have agreed to increase NATO’s permanent command structure by 1,200 personnel. He was therefore surprised that the EU Member States, most of them also members of NATO, were not able to provide these 14 persons, i.e., 1% of the 1,200 approved for NATO. And, without wishing to underestimate the difficulties in human resources, “we must be serious about reconciling rhetoric and reality”, he warned. The Covid crisis is not helping, with 10% of the staff present on site.
Similarly, on the ground, the EUTM Somalia mission is severely understaffed. After the last generation of forces in June 2020, there is still a 30% shortfall in personnel.
While the three EUTM missions had been reduced in activity (see EUROPE 12469/21) due to Covid-19, the EUTM RCA and Somalia missions have been restarted and are at full capacity, and EUTM Mali is expected to do so at the beginning of December, according to the Admiral, as the recovery was slowed down by the coup d’état of 18 August (see EUROPE 12546/3). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)