Paris, 04/06/2008 (AN/NA) - Speaking before the Western European Union (WEU) Assembly, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French Secretary of State for European Affairs, presented, on Tuesday 3 June in Paris, the priorities of the future French EU Presidency for European security and defence policy (ESDP). France intends to launch a debate geared to security strategy review, the strengthening of civilian and military capabilities, the development of common security and defence policy (CESDP) instruments (with permanent structured cooperation and reinforcement of the operations centre in Brussels), and strategic partnerships. Pending the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, Paris plans to “trigger a basic movement for reactivating Europe of Defence” aimed at going beyond the French Presidency, Mr Jouyet said. On the question of goals that could be reached before the end of its mandate, the French Presidency hopes to complete review of European security strategy and reach a political agreement on the defence package. Mr Jouyet specified that France hopes to achieve adoption of the directive on public defence procurement and to also take forward liberalisation of intra-Community transfers of defence products.
In the French domestic debate, rekindled with the updating of the White Paper on Defence and France's declared return within NATO structures, ESDP (development of which comes within the French Presidency's priorities as of 1 July) is the result of a “former political choice” by Paris, Mr Jouyet said. This reactivation of ESDP should take place in a “renewed political vision” based on “complementarity” between the ESDP and NATO. “It is no longer NATO or the Europe of Defence. It is NATO and the Europe of Defence”, Mr Jouyet said speaking before the assembly. Saying that “European means are not adequate to meet crises and threats” that already or will face the EU, Mr Jouyet suggested “defining the strategic vision that must allow shortcomings to be overcome” (in addition to the lack of political resolve, there is the scattering and inadequacy of defence spending which results in a military capability deficit) and fixing concrete objectives for the next ten years. “It is clear that we shall not be able to complete all that by the end of our Presidency”, Mr Jouyet admitted, before going on to give details of the main objectives of the French Presidency:
1) Updating European security strategy for the next decade. As Mr Jouyet says, it is not a question of “going back over a document and recasting it” but of “updating a joint threat analysis” on the base of which “defence means and security strengthening means may be defined”. In his view, this updating is essential “for reasons of good sense” as, since 2003 (year when the strategy was adopted), the EU has increased from 15 to 27 members, the EU has conducted about 15 military and civilian operations that must be taken into account, and relations with Russia and the United States have evolved as have the threats which are “more diffuse and include areas that we have not hitherto included in security such as migratory pressure, ecological risks, cybercrime and trafficking of all kinds”.
2) Strengthening civilian and military crisis management capabilities. “The EU must play a greater role in crisis management” either “in an autonomous manner (…) or with the means (or support) of NATO”, Mr Jouyet said, suggesting that a “mutualisation” between a number of member states of their defence spending should be adopted (by developing means in common, using existing means in common or placing certain military and civilian functions in common). “We hope the Europeans reach agreement” on a series of “new structuring capability projects” for which all member states would support the principle “even though they might be initiated by only a few countries”, he said. A European aeronaval group, formed around, for example, the British or French aircraft carrier or a common A400-M fleet for strategic transport or in-flight refuelling would be examples of such cooperation in the air or maritime fields. For crisis management it would be necessary to improve evacuation capacity of European nationals (Jouyet spoke of the Lebanon episode in 2006) and demining capacity. France, which would like to move towards the “creation of a real defence market”, also suggests “giving impetus to the European Defence Agency on structured European programmes”. The financing of operations should also be discussed again because the common financing mechanism of Operation Athena “has proved too restrictive”, Mr Jouyet said.
3) Development of European defence instruments. The setting in place of permanent structured cooperation (PSC) foreseen by the Lisbon Treaty would be the future Presidency's goal “par excellence”. Pending implementation after entry into force of the treaty in 2009, France plans to launch the debate for “creating conditions for a consensus on the principles and general framework” for PSC implementation. “It is not a matter of creating a directory of some kind but of having the most inclusive approach possible from the outset. No-one must feel excluded”, he said. On the subject of planning and the conduct of operations, Jean-Pierre Jouyet affirmed that the efforts made by the future Presidency will focus on “strengthening” the Union's operations centre, whose capacities are still in an embryonic and non-permanent stage, so that launching its operation becomes credible in concrete terms.
4) Partnerships. Above all, it is a question of strengthening the key partnership for security, that of the EU and NATO. “21 of the 27 members of the EU are also members of NATO. This is a reality that must be taken into account”, Mr Jouyet said before going on to speak of the need to also develop partnerships with countries that do not belong to NATO but which “want and can contribute to EU operations, including Russia”. The EU-Russia summit to be held during the French Presidency will focus on developing a new strategic partnership, he added.