Strasbourg, 10/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday by 275 to 96 with 11 abstentions, the European Parliament adopted the report by UDF MEP Philippe Morillon on the EU's new security and defence structures, deeply regretting the current divisions between Member States on crucial foreign policy matters and hoping the EU will take a single line and speak loud and clear with a single voice. The hundred or so MEPs voting against the report mainly come from the GUE/NGL (with the exceptions of French MEPs Caudron, Dary, Fraisse, Herzog and Scarbonchi), the UEN, EDD, British and Portuguese Conservatives and a handful of Greens.
The EP says it is firmly convinced that the EU has to gradually move towards a Common Defence Policy (307 to 98 with 7 abstentions) and expressed its interest in the Belgium's initiative to hold a summit in Brussels on 29 April on the EU's defence policy along with France, Germany and Luxembourg, hoping that other countries would get involved and that the proposals made at the summit would be submitted to the Council and the Convention. It encouraged Member States wanting to strengthen co-operation with a view to harmonising their military requirements to share capacities and guarantee a degree of specialisation in their defence activities. In response to the United States' National Defence Strategy, it suggests the EU develop a European Defence Strategy (amendment tabled by von Wogau, see below).
The EP wants the EU in 2004 to have a military force of 5000 individuals kept on permanent alert for humanitarian operations and the defence of endangered people. By 2009, the force should be able to lead, in Europe, operations of the scale and intensity of the war in Kosovo, either in cooperation with NATO or independently if NATO is not interested in getting involved. The EP called for a carefully documented overview of the EU's military requirements to be used as reference in deciding a common arms purchase and production policy. It calls for a mechanism to be established to assess commitments made by the Member States (with indicators like the defence budget as proportion of GDP, the share of the defence budget used for research and equipment, the level of preparation of armed forces, deployment capacities and their interoperability). A new body could be set up to carry out this overview, namely a European Arms and Research Agency with its own budget. The EP again called for Treaty Article 296 to be reviewed so that a European arms market can gradually be set up, and called for a merger of the posts of High Representative and External Relations Commissioner, with the new "European Foreign Representative having the right of initiative for crisis management; the launch of a common military academy; adding a collective defence clause to the Treaty for the Member States that so desire and a solidarity clause for mobilising military and civilian instruments to fight terrorism; the creation of a Defence Council; a regrouping of military and civilian units specialising in civil protection; the creation of a common police force and a coastguard body to protect the EU's external borders; and for the EU to be made a Permanent Member of the United Nations' Security Council.
By 229 to 170 with 11 abstentions the EU rejected an amendment tabled by the GUE/NGL and the Greens/EFA stating that the EU "must refuse to use war to settle international controversies".
During the debate consensus was obtained in support of the Morillon report, with the exception of the Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, EDD and non-attached. Although the Greens and the United Left do not see the need to push CFSP forward, they want more democratic control over the policy. The European of Democracies and Diversities and the non-attached have criticised the report and even the idea of a European defence policy. Chris Patten, Commissioner for External Reglations and the Greek Presidency has expressed their support for the report.
As most contributors stressed, the war in Iraq had made the debate on the future CFSP and ESDP policies curicial. Philippe Morillon declared that, "the inability of the EU to expresses itself with one voice" on Iraq, "is the proof of the need to modify our institutions". Member States must choose between "conferring their defence to the USA". He also stated that, "they stop giving lessons when they use that force "), or "agree to share the burden and give the means to do so". Speaking on behalf of the Greek Presidency, Tasso Giannitsis insisted on greater coopération between the major Europeans armaments industries and raising awareness among citizens about CFSP, the fact that the EU and NATO complement each other and the need for institutional reforms. Chris Patten explained that production and the arms trade should not become the "private hunting ground of Member States " and that the Advantages of the single market should also be felt here. On behalf of the EPP-ED, Dutch MEP Arie Oostlander called for a "European vision" of arms and butter use of military budgets. Member States still don't have a very substantial vision of the CFDP, he regretted. Speaking for the PES, French MEP Catherine Lalumière offered "full support" to the report and the "Common Defence Summit" in Brussels on 29 April of Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, saying that the EU had a role to play in the world, neither dominating nor being dominated. The British President of the Liberal group, Graham Watson, said that better rather than greater spending was required and called for a European Arms Agency to manage arms spending. He also called for a collective defence clause to be added to the Constitutional Treaty and for greater European Parliament influence on the CFDP. This idea was supported by Elmar Brok (EPP-DE, Germany ), President of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Dutch MEP Joost Lagendijk said the Greens/EFA could not support the report mainly because of the lack of democratic control over the CFDP as a whole. Danish MEP Pernille Frahm, speaking for GUE/NGL said that despite the good ideas in the report, her group could not vote for it because it makes a bad connection between increases in arms spending and the development of the CFDP. Rejecting the report for other reasons, French MEP Paul Coûteaux, speaking for the EDD group, described the CFDP and the CFSP as "pipe dreams" that ran throughout the 20th century and had never existed and never would. The Separatist MEP said that countries were the reality these days. On the same wavelength, fellow Frenchman Charles De Gaulle (speaking on behalf of the non-aligned) highlighted the "patent failure of the CFSP" and rejected the report that "calls for France to cut it defence to the equivalent of Belgium's". He warned that eurosceptics would fight this pipedream of a powerful Europe.
Germany Christian Democrat Karl von Wogau said the EU should formulate a European Security Strategy in response to the Bush administration's adoption last year of their National Security Strategy which he said clearly inspired the US's current behaviour. Von Wogau said a European Security Strategy should set out the EU's interests and fundamental objectives. He called for the incorporation of a mutual assistance clause in the future European Constitution, saying that the CFSP and the CFDP should be developed with clearly defined stages and deadlines, making clear pledges both in terms of subject matter and timetable, as had been done with, for example, implementing the internal market. Another member of the EPP-ED group, Irish Fine Gael MEP John Cushnahan said he was an enthusiastic supporter of the establishment of a European defence policy, saying it was as crucial an element of European integration as the single currency. Cushnahan said lessons had to be learned from the recent EU debacle, adding that he strongly supported the Transatlantic alliance but not in its current form where the EU is simply expected to endorse the US' foreign policy objectives. The Irish MEP warned that there absolutely no way of influencing the United States if one is so dependent on them.