Deauville, 02/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - During the informal meeting of defence ministers in Deauville, on Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 October, the French EU Presidency placed emphasis on the development of military capabilities on the basis of a number of projects already being developed. The aim of this was to measure the degree of interest shown by different member states for each of the projects.
Subjects covered concern: (1) helicopters (training of crews and upgrading of aircraft) on the basis of a Franco-British initiative involving the European Defence Agency (EDA) and NATO. At least five countries expressed their will to contribute to it: France (up to about €8 million), the UK (£5 million), Denmark (€2 million), Luxembourg (€500,000) and Finland (€500,000). (2) the Franco-German heavy helicopter, a long-term (10-15 years) programme, with the European Defence Agency in charge of its development; (3) establishment of a European fleet of A400M strategic transport aircraft (this could take the form of making a certain number of flying hours available or the creation of a multinational unit): nine countries are interested (France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Spain and Portugal); (4) carrier cooperation (reflection is centred on interoperability, or even various forms of cooperation moving towards the formation of a joint carrier group); this project will bring together, as its basis, the four countries with aircraft carriers: the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain; German Minister Franz-Joseph Jung has announced that Germany would be willing to contribute; (5) space-based imaging, using the MUSIS project, the earth segment of which is due to be developed by the EDA (a letter of intent has still to be signed before the end of the French Presidency): Poland would like to join the six countries which are already involved in this project; at the same time, the EU satellite centre at Torrejon is expected finally to be able to receive images from the military satellites Helios (French), SAR-Lupe (German) and Cosmo-Skymed (Italian); (6) linking of the EDA and JACS: the German minister pointed out the advantages of bringing the EDA and JACS closer together; a cooperation agreement is likely in November; (7) maritime mine clearance: five countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands) indicated their interest for an EDA research programme on the future mine sweeper; (8) development of the EDA's research activities based on the priorities identified in the capacity development plan; (9) military Erasmus: virtually all ministers, with the exception of the UK, shared great enthusiasm for this exchange and officer training programme which, according to the French minister would see a “European awareness” developing: a statement of intent is due to be signed in Brussels on 10 November; (10) evacuation of nationals: member states agreed to the setting up of a mechanism based on regional points of contact, early warning procedures and prior designation of pilot nations by geographical area; the EU military staff is to prepare proposals for 10 November; Germany indicated its willingness to provide the point of contact for Central Asia; (11) surveillance of maritime borders: much remains to be done on this issue; in the face of the many initiatives by the EDA (tactical drones), the Commission through FRONTEX (coordination of maritime surveillance), member states, both individually and in concert, NATO (anti-terrorist monitoring in the Mediterranean), ministers called for an inventory to be drawn up under the responsibility of the High Representative. The Commission is also working on a draft judicial framework for the exchange of data and is preparing a pilot project for 2009, where information is shared between ships, customs and ports. (O.J./transl.jl/rt)