Brussels, 12/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting on 10 March at NATO's headquarters, the North Atlantic Council and the EU's Political and Security Committee (COPS) discussed the replacement of SFOR in Bosnia by an EU force (with NATO leaving around 200 men in place to track down war criminals). NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters that they discussed a document on the sharing of responsibilities and the command structure once the EU takes over. The Secretary General of the Council of the EU and EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, focussed on the need for a clear chain of command, commenting that commanding the field would be European. One of the most controversial issues on the table was responsibility for tracking down war criminals to face trial at the Tribunal in The Hague. The United States want this to be under NATO's control, whereas de Hoop Scheffer's document suggests that EU agents could work with NATO in these operations.
On Afghanistan, Javier Solana told reporters that the EU was cooperating with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams already in place.
The Irish ambassador Declan Kelleher told reporters that the fight to combat weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was a key issue, and Javier Solana pointed out that combatting WMD formed part of the EU security strategy adopted by last December's European Council.