Brussels / Sintra, 29/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Less than three months after the European Council of Helsinki, the interim bodies of the Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP) are set in place with the European Council of the Union, on Wednesday 1 March (see EUROPE of 25 February, p.4, on the subject of the decisions taken by the Council on this subject). We recall that there will be the following structures:
- Political and Security Committee (COPS), which is to meet once a week. The constitutive meetings will be held on 1 March, the first working meeting on 3 March. The Committee will first of all be chaired by the country holding EU Council presidency, but another arrangement may be agreed upon for the future Permanent Committee (in the interest of greater continuity, which could be ensured, for example, if the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, were to take on this presidency).
- Military body prefiguring the future Military Committee, which will hold its first working meeting on 7 March.
- Team of national military experts prefiguring the future European Military Staff.
The priority of these interim bodies will be the development of CESDP, which mainly covers: improved EU military capabilities with a view to crisis intervention, the coordination of EU actions for non-military crisis management and prevention, the setting in place of a mechanism for consultation for third countries hoping to take part in EU-led crisis management operations, relations between the EU and NATO (a report from the Portuguese Presidency is expected on this issue for the Santa Maria da Feira summit on 19 and 20 June).
As we pointed out earlier, EU defence ministers and High Representative Javier Solana welcomed at their informal meeting on 28 February in Sintra the setting up of these interim bodies (see yesterday's EUROPE, pages 5 and 6). In addition, a document on the EU's permanent military bodies (see below) was already on the table.
Headline goals: towards establishment of "force packages' corresponding to possible intervention
scenarios - Permanent military bodies: a place for "Deputy SACEUR" at EU Council?
The work in Sintra was based above all on the British document entitled "Elaboration for the Headline Goals - Food for Thought", which affirmed that the elaboration of the agreed objective in Helsinki must be carried out according to a "systematic approach" comprising a "clear link" with the CFSP policy context. The document describes six "key steps" to be envisaged, specifying that an agreement should be reached on the first three before being able to make progress on the following. These steps are: 1. Outline of the overall strategic context; 2. Articulation of key planning assumptions; 3. Selection of planning scenarios that describe illustrative situation for the employment of forces; 4. Identification of the force capabilities required to support the scenarios; 4. Development of illustrative force packages that have required capabilities and confirmation of their effectiveness against the planning scenarios; 6. Using these different force packages to define the full range of requirements implicit in the headlines goals. Once the headline goals are thus elaborated, it will be necessary to examine what national contributions should be and to identify the possible "capability gaps".
In the current strategic context, states the paper, it will be necessary to insist above all, during the development of the headline goals, on the requirements of deployability, sustainability, interoperability, flexibility, mobility, survivability, and control command. The document also stresses that these objectives will also be mutually strengthened (for EU Member States which are also NATO members) with those of the Defence Capabilities Initiative launched during the Atlantic Alliance summit in April 1999 in Washington.
Regarding the type of mission that the future European force will be called upon to carry out, the British document points out that "we should assume that the most demanding mission" will be a "complex peace enforcement task in or around Europe". It recalls that WEU has already produced a series of "illustrative profiles of the Petersberg missions" including scenarios for European-led operations up to corps size level, and that these scenarios will also cover "maritime and air" elements. The document evokes the possibility (but this gives rise to reservation) of conducting, in parallel, large-scale operations on European territory, with more limited operation elsewhere in the world.
On Monday, in Sintra, the ministers also had on the table a document giving a detailed description of the role of the new military bodies within the EU, entitled "Military Bodies in the EU and the Planning and Conduct of EU-led Military Operations".
EUROPE will return with details on this document, which states that the Chairman of the (permanent) European Military Committee will be a four-star officer, who will participate in EU Council meetings when the Council takes decisions with defence implications. The document also states that the DSACEUR (European Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe) "would normally participate" in the work of the European Military Committee, as appropriate, although not a member.
Flahaut says the FPÖ "has already disqualified itself"
As EUROPE has already reported, André Flahaut read, before work got off the ground in Sintra, a statement expressing his "uneasiness" over the presence of an FPÖ minister, Defence Minister Herbert Scheibner. Recalling that he is also responsible in the Belgian Government for war victims, Mr Flahaut noted that the FPÖ is "a party whose slogans are directly inspired by ideologies which in the past led Europe to war and genocide". "This party does not deserve to be judged on its acts: it has already disqualified itself", said Mr Flahaut, who also announced the suspension of military relations between Belgium and Austria.
Questioned by the press, French Defence Minister Alain Richard said he agreed entirely with the views expressed by the Belgian Minister.
Herbert Scheibner, meanwhile, stated at his press conference that he had participated in the work in Sintra as representative of an EU State enjoying full membership and that experience would demonstrate the groundless nature of Mr Flahaut's concerns. (Mentioning Austrian accession to NATO -a possibility raised in the Schüssel government programme- he noted in particular that the SPÖ, the Austrian Social Democrat Party, is opposed).
Lastly, Javier Solana, asked at his press conference whether the current political situation in Austria risked slowing the momentum of development of a European security and defence identity, recalled that only bilateral relations between the Fourteen and Austria had been broken off: "I do not see why this momentum should not continue", he stated.