6.1.3.     Security and defence policy

LEGAL BASIS

Title V of the TEU on the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) (*6.1.1). and the five declarations on CFSP annexed to the TEU, particularly numbers 2 and 3 on the Western European Union (WEU).

OBJECTIVES

Five objectives were established for the CFSP (as modified by the Amsterdam Treaty):

• to safeguard the common values, fundamental interests, independence and integrity of the Union in conformity with the principles of the United Nations Charter;
• to strengthen the security of the Union in all ways;
• to preserve peace and strengthen international security, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter, as well as the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and the objectives of the Paris Charter, including those on external borders;
• to promote international cooperation;
• to develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. The Treaty of Amsterdam
   1. Content of the CFSP
      1. The incorporation of the Petersberg tasks
         Under Article 17 (4), the Treaty of Amsterdam incorporated into the TEU the so-called Petersberg tasks: humanitarian and rescue tasks, peace-keeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peace-making. They became part of the CFSP and the common defence policy. All of the Union Member States may participate in these tasks.
      2. Common Strategies
         This new instrument is decided by the European Council.
      3. EU/WEU relations
         Article 17(3) of the Treaty of Amsterdam seeks to clarify the nature of these relations, stating that the EU will avail itself of the WEU to implement decisions which have defence implications, and that the EU will draw up political guidelines for such situations. The Council, in agreement with the institutions of the WEU, must adopt the necessary practical arrangements to allow all Member States who wish to participate fully and on an equal footing in planning and decision-taking in the WEU. For its part, the WEU will be responsible for organising the forces and the chain of command.
   2. Decision-making process
      1. Initiative
         Under Article 18 (4), the Commission is fully associated with the work carried out in the field of CFSP and has, along with the Member States, the right of initiative. It may also, as any Member State, request the Presidency to convene an extraordinary Council meeting and make suggestions to the Policy Planning Unit for work to be undertaken.
      2. Decision
         In order to allow a certain degree of flexibility to the general rule of unanimity in the decision-making process, the Amsterdam Treaty introduced the constructive abstention procedure, by which a Member State can choose not to apply a particular decision even though it agrees that it commits the Union as a whole. The Council acts, by derogation, by qualified majority when adopting joint actions, common positions or taking any other decision on the basis of a common strategy and when adopting any decision implementing a joint action or a common position.
      3. Implementation
         • The Amsterdam Treaty introduces the new office of a High Representative (HR) for CFSP. He or she will also be the Council Secretary General. Under Article 26, the HR shall assist the Council in the field of CFSP with the formulation, preparation and implementation of policy decisions and, when appropriate and acting on behalf of the Council at the request of the Presidency, with conducting political dialogue with third countries. Mr Javier Solana was appointed as the first HR and took office on 18 October 1999.
         • The CFSP budget, which is part of the EC budget, is implemented by the Commission.
2. The Nice Treaty
   1. Political and Security Committee
      Under Article 25 of the Nice Treaty, the Political and Security Committee shall exercise, under the responsibility of the Council, political control and strategic directions of crisis management operations. The Council may authorise the Committee, for the purpose and for the duration of a crisis management operation, as determined by the Council, to take the relevant decisions concerning the political control and strategic direction of the operation. This gives it an even more prominent role in the ESDP.
   2. Enhanced cooperation
      Enhanced cooperation shall respect the principles, objectives, general guidelines and consistency of the CFSP and the decisions taken within the framework of that policy. It shall relate to implementation of a joint action or a common position, but not to matters having military or defence implications. If no Member States object or call for unanimous decision in the European Council, enhanced cooperation is adopted in the Council by a qualified majority with a threshold of only eight Member States.
3. Further developments
   1. Cologne European Council
      At the June 1999 European Council in Cologne, as a result of the Kosovo conflict, the EU took a major step towards establishing its own military capabilities and placed the Petersberg tasks at the core of the process of strengthening the European Common Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The aim was to create capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, and the readiness to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO. The European Council made it clear that the integration of the WEU into the EU institutional framework was not necessary, despite the fact that it was foreseen in the Amsterdam Treaty; rather, those functions that the WEU assumed in the field of Petersberg tasks would be included in the EU.
   2. Helsinki European Council
      A concrete military aim was set up by the European Council, known as the "Headline Goal": by the year 2003, in voluntarily cooperation, the Member States should be able to deploy within 60 days, and then sustain, forces capable of the full range of Petersberg tasks, including the most demanding, in operations up to corps level (up to 15 brigades consisting of 50 000-60 000 persons). This new force, to be called the European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF), would be available for deployment to a crisis area up to 2 500 miles away within 60 days, where it could remain for at least a year. Its mission would include humanitarian rescue operations, the prevention of armed conflict, or even full-scale intervention to separate fighting parties. It is to be noted that the achievement of this goal does not involve the establishment of a European army.
   3. Feira European Council
      • At the June 2000 Council, in Feira, Portugal, the EU formally established:
        • the interim Political and Security Committee (PSC), composed of national representatives dealing with all aspects of CFSP, including a European Security and Defence Policy,
        • the interim EU Military Committee (EMC), composed of the Chiefs of Defence represented by their military delegates, which will give advice and make recommendations to the PSC.
      • The Feira Council also created a European Security and Intelligence Force (ESIF) which will consist of 5 000 well-armed police, able to carry out actions in support of global peacekeeping missions. This force will be under the control of the PSC, while effective operational control will be in the hands of the HR. It will require a pool of more than 15 000 men committed and trained for service with the ESIF.
   4. The Capabilities Commitment Conference
      On 20 November 2000 in Brussels, the Member States took part in a Capabilities Commitment Conference, making it possible to draw together the specific national commitments corresponding to the military capability goals set by the Helsinki European Council. These commitments have been set out in a document known as the "Force Catalogue". In accordance with the guidelines of the Helsinki and Feira European Councils on collective capability goals, the Member States committed themselves to medium and long-term efforts in order to further improve both their operational and their strategic capabilities by implementing reforms in their armed forces required for autonomous EU action.
   5. Nice European Council
      In December 2000, the European Council in Nice assessed each Member State's undertakings in regard to forming the European Security and Defence Policy.
   6. Göteborg European Council
      At the June 2001 European Council in Göteborg, the EU was committed to developing and refining its capabilities, structures and procedures in order to improve its ability to undertake the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks, making use of military and civilian means.
   7. Laeken European Council
      At the December 2001 European Council in Laeken, the EU adopted a declaration on the operational capability of the European Security and defence policy saying that:
      • the development of military capabilities does not imply the creation of a European army;
      • the Union has begun to test its structures and procedures relating to civilian and military crisis-management operations;
      • the Union's crisis-management capability has been strengthened by the development of consultations, cooperation and transparency between the EU and NATO in crisis management in the Western Balkans.
   8. Seville European Council
      The European Council welcomed the first crisis management exercise conducted by the Union in 2002, which tested successfully the ESDP structures and decision-making procedures.
   9. Copenhagen European Council
      The European Council also indicated the Union's willingness to lead a military operation in Bosnia following SFOR. It confirmed the Union's readiness to take over the military operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as soon as possible in consultation with NATO. As a consequence, the first military operation was launched on 18 March 2003 and it makes use of NATO common assets and planning capabilities.
   10. Brussels European Council
       At the March 2003 European Council in Brussels, the EU welcomed the police operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 January 2003) and the launch of the EU military operation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to follow the NATO operation "Allied Harmony" on 31 March 2003.
4. WEU: recent developments
   On 17 October 2000, the WEU military committee adopted the transition plan which seeks, while the permanent structures of the EU take shape, to ensure continuity in crisis management. However, the WEU Military Staff, with its Planning Cell and Situation Centre, will disappear once its counterpart is set up in its final form within the EU.
   The meetings of the Council of Ministers of the WEU in Oporto in May 2000 and in Marseille in November 2000 paved the way for the transfer to the EU of the WEU functions required for performing Petersberg tasks.
5. WEU/NATO relations
   Cooperation between the Western European Union and NATO underpinned the process of the reactivation of the WEU and became progressively more intensive and more frequent. In 1994 the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTFs) as a means of facilitating contingency operations was introduced. It should be implemented in a manner that provided separable but not separate military capabilities that could be employed by NATO or the WEU and would respond to European requirements and contribute to Alliance security.
   Further steps have been made:
   • From 17 to 23 February 2000 the first ever joint WEU/NATO crisis management exercise took place. This was based on a peace support mission scenario (Petersberg mission) consisting of a WEU-led operation using NATO assets and capabilities.
   • A Joint WEU/NATO Exercise Study (JES 01), took place in the Netherlands in June 2001. JES 01 focused from a technical/operational viewpoint on procedures for establishing an Operation HQ (OHQ) for a WEU-led operation using NATO assets and capabilities under the political control and strategic direction of WEU.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

03/04/2003