Brussels, 20/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The two conferences held on Monday in Brussels on the EU's military and police capabilities deployable in the event of conflict were followed up, on Tuesday, by meetings with the candidate countries and European non-EU NATO-member countries (see yesterday's EUROPE, pp.4 and 5). The candidate countries, Iceland and Norway announced that they were for now willing to contribute with 762 police officers in international EU operations beginning in 2003. They did not specify, however, what the detailed contribution of each would be.
In military matters, the meeting with the candidate countries, Iceland and Norway mainly allowed information to be shared on Monday's conference, on one hand, and on armed forces reforms under way in partner countries, on the other. Some of these countries announced additional qualitative or quantitative contributions compared to the conference in November 2000, European sources pointed out, without giving further details in the knowledge that no press conference or declaration followed these meetings. Poland thus reportedly announced its intention to contribute with two battalions of 1,300 men, Romania also announced troops, and Turkey confirmed that, once the matter of its participation in European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has been settled, it may make 3,000 men available. Some countries are still expected to specify in writing what their contributions will be. Participants also spoke of "very good cooperation" between the various organisations present in the Balkans (EU, OSCE, NATO), and stressed that the region remains a priority.
The meeting was followed by a brief meeting between the 15 and the 6 NATO partner countries (Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic). Discussions apparently did not provide any new details on the problematical issue of participation by these six countries, and of Turkey in particular, to the setting in place of ESDP and ESDP decisions.