Several European officials, including the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, highlighted the challenges facing civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions on Tuesday 24 May at the conference “Shaping Civilian CSDP for the future”.
The EU currently has 11 civilian missions on three continents and a new civilian CSDP Pact is expected to be adopted under the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council by June 2023.
Sophie Hatt, from the French Ministry of the Interior, which currently holds the Presidency of the EU Council, considered that the revision of the Pact would be an opportunity to set a common level of ambition for civilian CSDP and to adapt the tools. According to her, missions must become “more resilient, robust and flexible”. The CSDP must be made “more flexible, efficient and responsive and better linked to other instruments”, confirmed Delphine Pronk, Chair of the Political and Security Committee.
Mr Borrell, for his part, stressed the need for qualified personnel, explaining that more input was needed from Member States in terms of personnel with the necessary skills, capabilities and experience “to ensure that the missions can deliver on their promises”. “The human factor makes the difference”, he said.
“The reinforcement of pre-deployment training for experts must be continued, the selection of candidates must be optimised and the profiles must be better adapted to the field. We need to continue to prepare experts in the Member States with the full range of skills, including language skills”, added Mrs Hatt. The EU, for example, faced a shortage of French-speaking experts for deployments in Africa.
Beyond qualifications, missions are faced with a chronic shortage of staff. Several Heads of Mission have denounced the situation. “How can you implement a mandate if you don’t have the staff?”, asked Nataliya Apostolova, Head of the EUPOL COPPS mission. She highlighted a “huge recruitment problem”, explaining that around 25% of the staff needed was not recruited.
Strengthening internal cooperation
Mrs Hatt also called for more visibility of missions that are less known to the general public than civilian missions and for better coordination. “We need to coordinate better with the European Commission’s actions and programmes to avoid duplication of supply”, she said.
A need also stressed by European CSDP officials. For the Director of the Integrated Approach to Security and Peace, Stefano Tomat, the strengthening of cooperation between the civilian and the military, but also between the civilian CSDP and Justice and Home Affairs, the Member States, the European Parliament and the European Commission, is necessary.
The Heads of Mission of EUAM Ukraine, Antti Hartikainen, and EUBAM Libya, Natalina Cea, underlined their disbelief that their missions could not implement Commission-funded projects in their countries. “It would be more efficient, faster (...) Much more sustainable in the long run”, according to Mrs Cea.
Mr Hartikainen also called for better communication with the Member States, wishing that the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) would be more strategic and leave the technical issues to the Heads of Mission. “Member States cannot be contacted directly. If we had a channel of communication, it might improve the situation. We have a very limited capacity to react”, he regretted.
According to the High Representative’s Chief of Staff, Pedro Serrano, one of the difficulties of civilian missions is their governance, which is more complex than that of a military mission. He also called for the development of the CPCC and the chain of command, both at strategic and operational levels.
A lack of resources
But to achieve these goals, Europeans will have to put their money where their mouth is.
Indeed, while for the EU Civilian Operations Commander, Francisco Esteban Perez, “planning and conducting a mission requires political will and adequate financial resources”, Mr Tomat highlighted the “big problem of funding” for civilian CSDP. “Some people want to limit the budget, but we have to be ambitious and courageous and not reduce the budget, but revitalise it to achieve our goals”, he added.
Mr Borrell estimated that there would be more requests for civilian missions in the future. “We have few resources, we will have to choose where to invest, what cause to defend and for what results”, he explained.
The Deputy Secretary General for CSDP and Crisis Response, Charles Fries, warned that the EU was facing a growing deficit in the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) budget which funds CSDP missions. “The deficit is estimated to be around 67 million euros in May 2022, which is not sustainable”, he warned. While stating that the EU would try to save money and make the best use of it, Mr Fries explained that in order to carry out the tasks approved by the Member States, an increase in the budget was needed. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)