MEPs in threat to shoot down EU defence force

Date: 01/03/01

By John Shelley

MEPS are threatening to de-rail plans to set up a European military force by refusing to pick up a €10 million bill for defence staff and security costs.

The Euro-MPs say they may turn down a request from member states to approve funding on top of the agreed budget for 2001. This would not only threaten the EU's military plans but would also spark a major institutional war by breaking a 25-year-old 'gentleman's agreement' between Parliament and EU nations that they do not scrutinise each other's administrative spending.

The extra funds are needed to pay for 51 staff and other expenses that governments say are crucial if they are to set up the EU rapid reaction force and its police back-up unit.

MEPs claim that because the staff will be under the direct control of member states and not the Commission, their actions will not be subject to proper scrutiny. They argue this would set a dangerous precedent.

"If we accept this supplementary budget now we open a door we will never be allowed to close," said German MEP Markus Ferber, the rapporteur on the subject. "We would be giving member states carte blanche."

The row revolves around staff needed by the Council of Ministers in order to get the proposed 60,000-soldier crisis-management force up and running. MEPs are worried that providing the Council with such staff would result in the institution having operational responsibilities normally reserved for the Commission.

They claim officials would have the power to devise and implement the Union's defence policy without scrutiny from the Parliament or any other EU body. Member states insist the posts are purely administrative and that the operational work will be done by military personnel.

Even if the MEPs do back down from their demands, the breaking of the gentleman's agreement by questioning the move could pave the way for a new era of increasingly bitter budget disputes between the two institutions.

"We would sit in our budget committee looking at how many teaspoons the Parliament are planning to buy this year, and they would look at how many stamps and envelopes we want to buy," said one EU diplomat. "It would all end up being rather pointless."

MEPs hope to arrange an urgent meeting with the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana to discuss the crisis.

Major General Graham Messervy-Whiting, chief of the EU's military staff, and Deputy Secretary General Pierre de Boissieu, the official responsible for the Council's day-to-day running, both declined to comment.

The EU should fund military operations with its own defence budget, according to a paper published today (1 March) by the Centre for European Reform think-tank. It also calls for Europe to take on a greater peace-keeping role in the Balkans and to combine the jobs of EU High Representative and External Relations Commissioner.

MEPs are threatening to de-rail plans to set up a European military force by refusing to pick up a €10 million bill for defence staff and security costs. The Euro-MPs say they may turn down a request from member states to approve funding on top of the agreed budget for 2001.This would not only threaten the EU's military plans but would also spark a major institutional war by breaking a 25-year-old 'gentleman's agreement' between Parliament and EU nations that they do not scrutinise each other's administrative spending.