23/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - French Defence Minister Alain Richard said in an interview published in the "Journal du Dimanche" on 22 October that "France should provide some 20% of all the personnel and equipment of the EU's future rapid reaction force. At the informal meeting of EU defence ministers, in Ecouen, several countries, but not France, had provided indications as to their contributions to this force, evaluated at 80,000 troops: Germany spoke of 18,000 troops, Spain 6,000, Belgium and the Netherlands 3,000, Austria 2,000, Sweden 1,500 and Portugal some 1,000 (see EUROPE of 23 September, p.3 and 25/26 September, p.6). In addition, Richard said that the distribution criteria of the effort among Member States should, for the troops, be the adult population of each of them and, for equipment, the wealth of each.