Solana seeks deal on plan for military HQ

Date: 11/09/03

By David Cronin

Key ingredients of the controversial Franco-German plan for developing an EU military structure independent of NATO have won backing from Javier Solana. But the Union's high representative for foreign affairs is seeking a compromise over the proposal, strongly opposed by Britain and the US, who fear it would diminish transatlantic ties.

Appearing before the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee yesterday (10 September), Solana said he had no difficulty in speaking about the EU's military structures having an "autonomous capacity from NATO".

"It is very important that Europeans should be able to have a capability if they want to have operations that are European alone and not with NATO allies," he said, adding that Operation Artemis, the EU peacekeeping mission in Congo which terminated at the beginning of this month, made no use of NATO assets.

However, Solana stopped short of endorsing the most controversial aspect of the 'Gang of Four' blueprint, unveiled at a defence 'mini-summit' between France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg in April. That called for a European military headquarters, which would be run separately from NATO, to be established in the Brussels suburb of Tervuren.

Solana noted that two EU states, Britain and France, have already demonstrated they can transform their military headquarters into multinational ones and that NATO also has its Supreme Headquarters for the Allied Powers in Europe at Mons, Belgium. "It would be logical to have only those three," he said, adding that the Union should strive to avoid duplicating NATO's assets.

Despite the differences between Paris and Berlin, on one hand, and London on the other, Solana argued he believed a compromise was achievable.

American criticism of the Gang of Four plan continues to be strenuous. Washington's NATO Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said he is in favour of the EU making use of NATO assets under the so-called Berlin Plus accord. "But we are fundamentally opposed to a Tervuren headquarters because it would be contradictory to Berlin Plus and needlessly duplicative," Burns told European Voice. "The US wants NATO-EU cooperation, not competition."

A UK diplomat described NATO as "the bedrock of European defence".

"Both Britain and France can make their HQs multinational and run operations," the diplomat added. "Given it is inconceivable that peacekeeping operations will be run without these two nations, Tervuren would be a waste of money."

Defence is expected to be a political hot potato during the intergovernmental conference (IGC) on finalizing an EU constitution, which kicks off in Rome on 4 October. Britain is the EU state most perturbed by a 'mutual defence' provision in the draft treaty, but this is also troubling some of the incoming EU states, especially Poland. They fear that a proposal to make signing up to this clause optional - leading to what Brussels insiders call 'enhanced cooperation' - could lead the EU to become a military rival to NATO.

A White Paper on the IGC published by Tony Blair's government this week states: "We will not agree to anything which is contradictory to, or would replace, the security guarantee established through NATO."

Javier Solana, the EU's High Representative for CFSP, has supported some elements of the Franco-German plan for an independent EU military structure but has called for compromises to be made to win over the UK and US governments.