Munich, 07/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - During the annual conference on security in Madrid, the French defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, called for the development of EU defence capacities “so as to enable it to be an autonomous player and to strengthen the European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance”. She said this depends on the ability to define a new partnership between the EU and North America. “Each of our pillars has specific trumps: particular links with this or that region, specific capacities in civil-military fields, experience adapted to specific environments. In terms of defence, we must make the specificities of NATO operations and EU operations clearer. Today, NATO is better equipped to handle heavy and long-lasting operations, when the United States are involved. ESPD is better adapted to 'lightning' operations and civil-military actions.” The French minister warned against “spreading ourselves too much, in areas where the competence of other organizations is more obvious. Let us not waste the money that is necessary to improve our equipment. Let us not spend our energy recreating methods of action with no real justification.” Referring to NATO airlift of African Union peacekeepers in and out of Darfur, she said military air transport is three times as expensive as civilian air transport.
During the discussion following Michèle Alliot-Marie's speech, former NATO Military Chairman General Klaus Nauman rejected the idea that EU battlegroups give the ESDP the ability to deploy within days, saying that a lack of communications would make deployed European troops “deaf and dumb.” Former US Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter proposed greater NATO-EU cooperation including making Allied Command Transformation available to the EU, EU participation in NATO's crisis management exercises, and a new transatlantic code of conduct on defence trade. (See EUROPE 9125 for Angela Merkel's speech in Munich). (Source: Our publication Atlantic News)