Brussels, 19/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Defence Ministers of the European Union on Monday adopted a Declaration on EU military capabilities, in which they formally announced that the Union is capable of carrying out all Petersburg tasks, and the setting up of ten project groups responsible for plugging the EU's gaps in military capabilities.
"The EU now has operational capability across the full range of Petersburg tasks, limited and constrained by recognised shortfalls", indicates the declaration. Concretely, this means that the EU is capable of carrying out the various categories of "Petersburg" tasks (peace-keeping, crisis management, humanitarian missions: Ed), which it has already begun to put into practise on the ground with the launch of its Concordia military mission on 31 March in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). However, the EU's military shortfalls are affecting these capabilities, and impose certain limits on its deployment capacity, depending particularly on the intensity of the crisis, and the number of concurrent missions.
The ten project groups, which were officially set up on Monday, and, at the time of going to press, could increase in number, will allow the EU gradually to fill the gaps in its military capabilities, and thus reduce its limitations. In this way, the EU's Rapid Reaction Force (60,000 troops which can be deployed within 60 days and mobilised for one year) could be declared operational this year, as planned. To this end, the project groups will implement short, medium and long-terms solutions (procurement, leasing, pooling) identified by 19 panels after one year of work, under the first phase of the European capabilities action plan (ECAP).
The second phase of ECAP starts with the creation of these project groups, each one led by a Member State, and some of which have already begun their work: - air-to-air refuelling, led by Spain; - combat search and rescue (Germany); - headquarters (UK); - nuclear, biological and chemical protection (Italy); - special operations forces (Portugal); - theatre ballistic missile defence (the Netherlands); - unmanned aerial vehicles, or "drones" (France); - space-based assets (France); - humanitarian evacuation operations (Belgium); - strategic air mobility (Germany).
Member States are also invited to look into the possibility of either leading or taking part in other project groups, on attack or support helicopters, for instance, or cruise missiles. The Defence Ministers also 1) reiterate the conclusions of the European Council of 20 and 21 March, requesting an examination of the possibility of creating an intergovernmental agency to develop and acquire capabilities within the EU; 2) call upon Member States to make new contributions based on existing capabilities, to commit to existing programmes (A400M), and to provide new capacities, notably in activating project groups; 3) encourage the implementation of the document on the "Capability Development Mechanism", whose duties include specifying the details of its interface with NATO. Lastly, the Ministers adopted the Helsinki Catalogue 2003 on the EU's military capabilities, including a supplement of the candidate countries' capabilities.
Progress made in military capabilities, but a lot still to be done, according to Javier Solana - French Defence Minister asks for more flexibility in the Stability Pact for defence expenditure - British Defence Secretary feels EU not ready for Petersburg tasks
At the conference on capabilities, Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for CFSP, welcomed the progress made since Helsinki, but believes that "much remains to be done", and called upon Member States to allocate the resources necessary to achieve the EU's objectives within a reasonable time-scale, and to reinforce the solidarity between the Member States "around common objectives". A competitive European defence industry and a solid technological basis are necessary to create a sort of "European market" for arms, he reiterated. Furthermore, Member States should organise European demand for material so that the armed forces can be equipped with quality material at a reasonable cost. To this end, national armament officials must become involved in the capability process. As to a European agency for the development and acquisition of military capability, this, he felt, was a "key project" to achieve these objectives.
Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Minister of Defence, welcomed the setting up of project groups. She said that the rapid reaction force of the EU would be operational by the end of the year. However, seeking to go even further, she was of the opinion that up to 2010, "we will be defining the kind of future defence we want", as well as "morally binding" deadlines for Member States. Calling on governments to spend more on defence, Ms Alliot-Marie, indicated that the Stability and Growth Pact constituted a "brake" and that it would be advantageous to "allow some of the means devolved to defence to escape from the pact's remit", notably in areas for research spending. She warned that the stability pact should not act as a pretext for certain Member States to not spend more. Ms Alliot-Marie also noted that the idea had been proposed by her Italian counterpart and supported by herself and the German and Belgian Ministers. Ms Alliot-Mari asked for a significant part of the defence budgets to be spent on research.
The British Minister for Defence, Geoff Hoon, indicated that there was still a lot of areas that needed attention from the EU. He echoed the words of his French colleague by also insisting on greater defence spending in all Member States. However, distancing himself from the declaration adopted at the conference, he stated that the EU was only ready for Saint Petersburg missions, which were less demanding, and was not ready for all of the others.