Brussels, 03/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - The preparation of the future EU ALTHEA mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is to take over from the NATO SFOR mission by the end of the year, dominated the exchange of vies which took place last week between the Director of the European Union Headquarters (EMUE), Lieutenant-General Jean-Paul Perruche, and the European Parliament sub-committee on security and defence. In his introduction, the chairman of the committee, the German Christian-democrat Karl von Wogau, indicated that Bosnia would be one of the committee's priorities and proposed to send a parliamentary delegation there.
ALTHEA's task will be to gradually hand over responsibility for security to the local authorities, Lieutenant-General Perruche explained to the MEPs. Unlike SFOR, which was purely military, the EU mission will call on various instruments (soldiers, police officers) and will be open to participation from third countries such as Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Morocco. Maintaining NATO troops on the ground (around 200 personnel) does not constitute an obstacle to the future EU mission, even if it does make things "a little more difficult", said the head of EMUE. "Sometimes we will have to struggle with the delegation of tasks" between the EU and NATO, but "it is the EU which will take command of operations" whereas NATO will take on "residual tasks", he assured the committee.
"If things go badly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we will need to turn to NATO", said the British conservative Geoffrey Van Orden, challenging the Lieutenant-General on the EU's military capacities. "In the EU we don't create new troops, we rearrange existing ones. Things need to be clear!", he insisted. The NATO mission in Bosnia "did not work too well in the past", since there are still war criminals on the run, said the German green Angelika Beer. "I do not get the impression that that will improve", she added, expressing her concerns over the credibility of the future EU mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The NATO credibility problem" on the ground "risks rubbing off on the EU", she said.
"We all regret that NATO has not succeeded" in arresting all war criminals, but "military forces are not designed for this sort of operation", which requires police forces, said Lieutenant-General Perruche, recalling the protection which war criminals receive on the ground and recognising that ALTHEA will face the same problem. "I believe that progress will come extremely quickly" in developing the European defence policy "contrary to what has been said", the head of EMUE replied to Mr Van Orden. Of course, "in reality we cannot imagine that tomorrow the EU will be able to commit the total number of personnel planned" in the Headline Goal 2003, but "the EU is capable of taking on bigger and bigger operations" and, above all, it should continue to develop its capacities "to become a dependable partner to the United States", he added.