Brussels, 16/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The twenty-five EU defence ministers are to meet on Friday, in Noordwijk in the Netherlands. This informal gathering will mainly focus on strengthening EU military capabilities and taking over from the NATO-led SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina, both issues being priorities of the Dutch EU Presidency. In Noordwijk, the steering board of the European Defence Agency will be meeting for the first time in the presence of EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana. The creation of a European gendarmerie will also be on the agenda as a declaration of interest aimed at developing such a force will be signed on the sidelines of the meeting. Over lunch, ministers will discuss the contribution that European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) can make to combating terrorism.
The EU's military capabilities will be one of the main issues discussed at the meeting. Discussion will cover the need to strengthen EU military capabilities in order to fill gaps in this field, as well as its new goals on the run up to 2010 (see EUROPE of 18 May, p.6). In Noordwijk, the Dutch Presidency hopes to draw up guidelines on these two matters in order to prepare the EU conference on military capabilities, to be held in November in Brussels on the sidelines of the External Relations Council. Special attention will be paid to the development of "battle groups", which is one of the most concrete expressions of the new military capabilities that the EU will avail itself of. We recall that the EU hopes to have two or three of these units, composed of around 1,500 men, by the year 2005 before reaching a total capacity of around 9 units by 2007 (EUROPE of 7 April, p.3). The Presidency also wants to draw ministers' attention to the strengthening of international military cooperation, a theme on which it will be organising a conference on 11 and 12 October.
In Noordwijk, ministers will be briefed on recent developments concerning the preparation of the future EU mission, ALTHEA, which is expected to take over the NATO-led SFOR mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the end of the year. The Force Generation Conference for the Althea mission, the aim of which is to define the contributions to be made by participant Member States to the mission in terms of personnel and material, was held on Wednesday at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), in Mons (see other article). We recall, moreover, that the External Relations Council last Monday adopted the "CONOPS", Althea's operations concept, which is the first stage in the mission's military planning. CONOPS has set out a general framework of goals, military assignments and operations to be conducted. Approval of this concept allows the EU to begin developing the OPLAN, the operations plan of the Althea mission, which is to be adopted in October.
It is under Javier Solana's chairmanship that the steering board of the European Defence Agency will meet for the first time, on the fringe of the meeting. Agency Director Nick Witney, of Britain, will present the Agency's working programme for the year 2005 to the EU defence ministers on the board. Mid-July this year, the External Relations Council adopted the joint action defining arrangements for implementation of the Agency, to be operational by the end of the year.
Finally, the constitution of a European military-style force or gendarmerie will make a further step forward in Noordwijk. On the fringe of the informal meeting, five countries (France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) will sign a Declaration of Interest in which they will undertake to launch the force. The result of a Franco-Italian initiative in 2003, the aim is to give the EU resources that will allow it to intervene in transition situations between the military and civil phase by the first half of 2005. The force in question should be composed of 800 rapidly deployable personnel with the possibility of being reinforced with a further 2,300, European senior officials said. The force's headquarters will be located in Vicenza in Italy. Belgium is expected to announce its wish to take part in this military style force by offering the support of the Belgian military police, composed of around 200 men, if necessary, Belgian sources state.