Rome, 06/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - In Rome on Friday and Saturday, European Defence Ministers determined the next stages to be followed in order to adapt European military capacities to the ambitions of the future Constitution and the future "European Security Strategy", which should be adopted at the end of the year. "We are moving towards a defence Europe with planetary objectives and it is clear that our capacities are not properly adapted," stated the Italian Defence Minister, Antonio Martino. With the development phase of European military capacity defined in Helsinki in 1999 coming to completion in 2003, the ministers are beginning to think about defining the 2004/2010 objectives.
France presented a work schedule and Italy presented a "reflection" paper recalling the need to develop the interoperability of national capacities, a central task for the future European Defence Agency. NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, underlined once again the lack of European troops that could actually be quickly deployed. "Our ambitions are in danger" he claimed. He had recently commented that of the 1.2 million regular soldiers in theory available to NATO, 250,000 are actually deployable, of which 80,000 are Europeans and Canadians already on the ground in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ministers welcomed Italy's proposal to create a "basket" of European rapid response elements, in order to allow the EU to react quickly in case of crisis. The French suggestion of creating a "European police force" was also welcomed. Based on the model of the French gendarmerie or the Italian carabinieri, this police force would intervene in transitory situations, between the phases of civil and military operations.
The Italian presidency called for the Defence Ministers to adopt a common approach to their peers in finance, in order to modify the accounting of defence expenditure in national budgets. "It should be possible to add a specific line for European defence spending and to take into account the fact that this is long term expenditure and not just over one year", declared the Belgian press minister, André Flahaut.
Antonio Martino told the press that the issue of "structured cooperation" provided for in the draft Constitution had not been covered. According to André Flahaut, the British appeared to "very cooperative". "Positions are drawing closer", claimed the Greek minister, Yannos Papantoniou, saying "efforts have been made in favour of progress", particularly on the issue of cooperation between NATO and the EU.
Furthermore, the ministers spoke of the development of cooperation with Mediterranean countries on defence questions. "Within the framework of the global fight against terrorism, it is important to have good cooperative relations with the south-Mediterranean," stated Antonio Martino. He said that the Spanish minister had suggested setting up contacts with these countries in order to implement joint operations. It is also necessary to develop common training programmes, for example. "When there has been direct contact between officers, a common culture and network of contacts have naturally formed", the Italian minister commented.