Brussels, 14/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The ministers of defence of the EU, candidate countries for accession, Norway and Iceland met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the conclusions of the General Affairs Council, in which, for the first time, EU defence ministers took part. Frederico Trillo, Spanish Defence Minister, stressed "the intense participation of these countries", most of which expressed the will to participate in EU missions, notably in Bosnia and Macedonia.
The meeting was held in two stages. A first meeting of all ministers (15+15) enabled the Spanish Presidency to provide information on the informal meeting of national armaments directors on 29 April and preparations for the EU's first military exercise that will be held from 22 to 28 May. Consultation on the military exercise with the fifteen non-members of the EU is scheduled for 23 May, and permanent contacts between the Headquarters will be held throughout the exercise. The EU has also undertaken to communicate to them information on the European capabilities action plan and on the work of the panels which are examining European military shortcomings (see yesterday's EUROPE p.6), but "we still need to consider on how to inform them on this point", said Trillo.
The second meeting, between EU defence ministers and those of six non-EU NATO member countries (Turkey, Norway, Iceland, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic: 15-6), was essentially on co-operation between the EU and NATO. Frederico Trillo stressed that "all were unanimous on the need to rapidly reach an agreement between the EU and NATO" (still deadlocked by Greece). Asked about a possible EU mission in Macedonia, he recalled that that was still up to the approval of the Macedonian Government and an EU/NATO agreement Considering that the what "ESDP has done in two years is spectacular," the minister did, however, agree that the problem of total agreement between the EU and NATO is delaying things". For his part, Sabahattion Cakmakoglu, Turkish Defence Minister, considered that "Turkey has done what it had to regarding European defence. Now, we are waiting for the end to the problem with Greece, but we have to hurry".