Brussels, 11/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - European Defence Ministers met in informal Council on Thursday evening and Friday in Brussels, under the chairmanship of Belgian Minister André Flahaut. Discussions are being devoted to the priorities of the Belgian Presidency with regard to common foreign and defence policy, the assessment of European intervention capabilities and an exchange of views on military intervention after the attacks of 11 September. No decision is expected to come out of the meeting which is preparing the joint meeting of foreign and defence ministers and the second capabilities improvement conference to be held on 19 and 20 November.
Three documents will be presented on the assessment of capabilities and on the shortcomings noted with regard to command and control, strategic transport and intelligence. These documents are: 1) an inventory of capabilities presented by the President of the Military Committee; 2) a method for making work move forward by the capabilities conference in November, presented by the Belgian Presidency; and 3) an action plan for filling the "gaps" proposed by the Netherlands. The Ministers should essentially confirm the diagnosis made at their earlier meetings, one European source assures.
The Belgian Presidency also hopes to take stock of its priorities (see EUROPE of 12 July, p.7), namely: 1) questions concerning the health of soldiers deployed and civilians on the site of conflict; 2) public information on the aims of ESDP; 3) the briefing of parliamentary assemblies on ESDP; 4) the elaboration of a European White Paper on Defence that will sketch out the broad lines of the future ESDP, on the basis of a sort of compilation of national White Papers on defence.
The response that followed the attacks on 11 September should simply be the subject of an exchange of views, assures a military expert, recalling that the current intervention in Afghanistan is very far from the humanitarian and preventive role assigned to future European forces under the "Petersberg tasks".