Dispute Arises over a New Defence Front threatening NATO

Dispute Arises over a New Defence Front
Stefania Bianchi - IPS 9/24/03

BRUSSELS, Sep 24 (IPS) - Plans to introduce a European Union military planning capability independent of NATO could threaten EU-U.S. relations, says a top U.S. diplomat.

The U.S. and some of the 15 member states of the EU are uneasy about plans by the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to set up a European military planning centre outside Brussels to run military operations independent of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation).

At a meeting in Berlin Saturday (Sep. 20) the leaders of Europe's 'big three' - France, Germany and Britain û agreed on a joint paper which sketches plans for the new initiative.

There is already a Europe Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF), but the latest proposals would give a European army the means to plan and carry out missions independently of NATO.

The proposals are a further sign of EU determination to present itself as a united power and as an autonomous force.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said at the meeting that all three nations agreed that the EU needs its own military planning structure, and that they would work towards setting one up either among all EU members or among a group of interested partners.

"The European Union should be endowed with a joint capacity to plan and conduct operations without recourse to NATO resources and capabilities," according to an internal document approved by the three leaders in Berlin. "Our goal remains to achieve such a planning and implementation capacity either in consensus with the 25 (member states of an expanded EU) but also in a circle of interested partners."

The new operational headquarters would have a staff of 40 or 50 officers, and would signal a watershed in European defence.

The proposals have been received with some reservation, and many in the U.S. administration suspect the plan is an attempt by France to undermine NATO.

Critics of the proposal say expansion of a European army's capabilities will undermine NATO, discourage U.S. involvement in European peacekeeping operations, and endanger Britain's special relationship with the United States.

U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns says Europe would be better advised to modernise its armed forces to deal with the threat of global terrorism, rather than building a headquarters that he said could cost billions of dollars.

"The rules of the road are that NATO and the European Union are partners...that the EU will not develop duplicative institutions," Burns said in a statement Monday.

The U.S. is particularly concerned about French insistence that the EU should have an independent military planning apparatus which could draw on military resources presently at the disposal of NATO.

Asked about plans for a separate EU military headquarters, previously criticised by Britain, Schroeder told the press Saturday: "All three of us agreed that it is important to make this initiative work for Europe to strengthen our operational capabilities and also our partnership with the United States."

The EU currently has its own military staff in Brussels but it cannot conduct day-to-day operations. The ERRF stationed in Macedonia on its maiden mission currently reports to NATO.

A new and enhanced ERRF would have three main roles, according to the proposals. First, to give assistance to civilians threatened by a crisis outside the EU; secondly, to respond to United Nations calls for peacekeeping forces, and finally to intervene to separate warring factions.

The issue of an independent EU army has been the subject of debate for some time. Last September relations between the EU and the U.S. were strained when NATO created its own rapid response force which aimed to "modernise and revitalise" the world's leading military alliance.

France and Belgium strongly objected to the move, saying the new force would undermine attempts by the EU to create its own rapid reaction force.

In April, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg officially launched plans for an independent EU planning capability, and proposed the creation of an autonomous operational headquarters in Brussels.

But given its timing, and the strains in EU-U.S. relations over the war in Iraq, the initiative was seen in Britain and the U.S. as a deliberate snub to U.S.. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the U.S..- led war in Iraq.

Blair says now that the EU can have military planning capability as long as it does not compete with the alliance. But with this latest move in Berlin on the weekend, he now also risks upsetting Washington.