Brussels, 21/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 November in Brussels, European Union defence ministers took stock of military capabilities requirements. A catalogue clearly shows that no new progress has been made over recent months. This half-yearly review of progress made and the remaining shortfalls in capabilities compared to the Helsinki Headline Goal for 2010 comes within a long process that depends not only on the transformation of military forces at national level but also on the acquisition of new material. This partly explains why the Requirements Catalogue diffused in November (see annex) is very similar to that of May this year which highlighted improvements made in just four sectors: - deployable laboratories; - seaport of disembarkation units; - operations headquarters; - and mechanised infantry battalions.
In conclusions adopted by the General Affairs Council, the foreign and defence ministers approved the Requirements Catalogue 05 which “puts renewed emphasis on rapidly deployable, highly interoperable armed forces that can be sustained as necessary over long periods on operations through rotation of forces and provision of the requisite enable, support and logistic elements”. The Council was pleased to note that the European Defence Agency had set up systematic procedures allowing for capabilities shortfalls to be addressed. The Council also noted that the EU/NATO Capability Group had continued to address issues relating to coherent and mutually reinforcing development of military capabilities in the EU and NATO where requirements overlap, including on EU Battlegroups and the NATO Response Force.