Brussels, 13/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 13 May, Spanish Defence Secretary, Frederico Trillo stressed the Fifteen's "unanimous satisfaction" with the participation, for the first time, of European Defence Secretaries in the General Affairs Council. "I do not doubt that this participation will continue under the next presidencies", he told the press. This will enable them to "have formal capabilities for pushing ahead with work with the view of attaining the Helsinki objectives", he said.
The Austrian Defence Minister, Herbert Schneiber, felt for his part that this "shows the growing importance of defence" for the European Union. The Council's main conclusions are given below.
The Council welcomed the setting in place of the EU Capability Development Mechanism (CDM). "We particularly thank the United Kingdom which has worked with the Spanish Presidency and has allowed a 14-party agreement to be reached", Mr Trillo told the press. It is hoped an agreement between fifteen will be reached at the Seville Summit, once the reservation expressed by Greece has been overcome (Ed.: Athens, however, remains firmly opposed to the compromise reached with Turkey on participation by NATO member but non-EU nations, in EU-led peace-keeping operations). The Council also decided to "undertake every effort in order to further monitor and evaluate progress and address shortfalls in the development of EU military capabilities and to develop the principles and framework for coherent and mutually reinforcing capabilities requirements with NATO within CDM".
Furthermore, the Council approved the report by the Political and Security Committee (COPs) on implementation of the European Capability Action Plan (ECAP), and welcomed cooperation between Member States on this subject. The Council notes with satisfaction that many of the shortfalls which could be remedied by this Action Plan, "including most of the significant ones, are already under scrutiny by active panels" (Ed.: the first 17 panels set in place to examine 24 of the 40 European shortfalls in military capabilities are already at work, and their conclusions are expected for this autumn). However, the Council recognises that "serious shortfalls will remain (…) while others still need to be addressed". The Council requested that a new progress report on implementing the Plan be presented under Danish Presidency (Ed.: we recall that, as Denmark has an "opt out" on defence, the work of the Council on these matters will be chaired by Greece, which will preside the Council during the first half of 2003).
The Council also discussed strengthened cooperation in the field of armaments. For the first time since Helsinki, a text "unanimously approved" was annexed to the Council's Conclusions. This text welcomes the informal meeting of National Armaments Directors (NAD) held in Madrid on 29 April at the initiative of the Spanish Presidency, considering that the "collective experience of National Armaments Directors is highly valuable" and that they should "be kept fully briefed on progress of those ECAP working groups where a procurement solution looks likely". The National Armaments Directors should continue to share their views on a "range of innovative approaches" with regards arms procurement. The Council stresses that the arms industry also plays an important role in the efforts aimed at meeting the shortfalls in arms supplies, and that it should be kept regularly informed of the progress and work of the Action Plan. A seminar bringing together the representatives of the Defence Ministers and the industrial representatives is already scheduled for 12 June. Finally, concerning improvements to the technological base of the defence industry in Europe, the Council insists on an appropriate level of investment in research and technology and on cooperation that will reduce the gap compared to other countries.
The Council also examined the COPS Progress Report on the development of the procedures and concepts required for the deployment of rapid reaction elements of the future European force, and confirmed the need to develop such concepts and procedures at a later date in accordance with the Presidency Workplan on Rapid Response. In addition, it welcomed progress made on command and control arrangements for the national and multinational headquarters, calling on the relevant Council bodies to continue their work on improvements to the operationality of headquarters.
In answer to questions on the decision by the United States to considerably increase its military budget, Federico Trillo replied that the European priority was to "optimise European resources and cooperation to detect our common shortfalls, with a view to remedying them". "Of course", he concluded, "this strengthens our awareness of the need to improve our investment".