Paris, 16/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a communiqué published in No.34 of the Bulletin of the WEU Institute for Security Studies, Burkhard Schmitt notes that the EU presents itself "in a dispersed order" regarding the American missile defence plan (BMD - Ballistic Missile Defence), and, while considering that the Gothenburg Declaration on the prevention of missile proliferation is an "encouraging sign", he stresses that the "Fifteen will be obliged to develop a common approach" in the matter. According to him, "the ideal would be to prepare a differentiated position, in the framework of the CFSP/ESDP and together defend it in constructive dialogue with the Americans". The EU should place emphasis on three aspects: - a "strategy defending the European vision of the fight against proliferation, based on diplomatic means and multilateral agreements (which means that the EU has to "become more demanding than in the past regarding non-proliferation"); - a "common argument vis-à-vis Washington", notably stipulating that the development of missile systems must go hand in hand with an "unequivocal renewal of the commitment to non-proliferation systems (..) including the ratification of the CTBT and the pursuit of the START process"; - an analysis of European requirements in matters of missile defence. "A "genuine" BMD for the Union (…) is, in the foreseeable future, neither necessary nor feasible", says Schmitt, recalling, however, that several European countries already have tactical missile defence systems, which "come within the rationale of a "muscled" CESDP, which does not rule out the projection of European forces in crisis regions on Europe's periphery".
In another article, entitled "The end of introversion", Nicole Gnesotto, the Institute's Director, notes that "after six months of rather turbulent Euro-American cohabitation", transatlantic cooperation has been "more real" than expected. In the Middle East, she says, "the pleasant surprise came from the Europeans: the Fifteen de facto managed to sketch out a relatively homogenous stance (…) The enormous personal investment of Javier Solana played a miraculous role of catalyst in this regard for the future of the CFSP, as was already the case in Macedonia (…). In this last conflict, the surprise came rather from the American side, President Bush demonstrating much greater continuity in the American policy than one may have gathered from his speeches during his electoral campaign".
(WEU Institute for Security Studies: ies-ueo@iss-weu-com, or http: //http://www.weu.int/institute ).