Belgium pushes for ‘enhanced co-operation’ in the field of defence, March 2003

The Belgian government is seeking to extend the idea of 'enhanced co-operation' in the European Union to defence, with talks between Belgium, France and Germany planned for 29 April 2003. The Belgian initiative foresees that some of the fifteen Member States could form their own 'coalition of the willing' in any military or humanitarian operations.

The proposal resurrects the idea of 'enhanced co-operation' that was introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into force in 1999. The principle was further amended by the Treaty of Nice which extended the application of 'enhanced co-operation' to the 'second pillar' of the EU, i.e. common foreign and security policy, in order to implement a joint action or common position. It also established a minimum requirement of eight Member States to form closer co-operation and abolished the veto mechanism, whereby every Member State, even if did not wish to participate, could oppose closer co-operation. However, each Member State will have the right to refer a matter to the European Council which is responsible for authorising the 'enhanced co-operation' by a qualified majority, except in the second pillar where the final decision is taken by the European Council acting unanimously. Proposals for 'enhanced co-operation' in the area of the first pillar that is subject to the co-decision procedure may only go ahead with the assent of the European Parliament.

To date, the concept of 'enhanced co-operation' has been little used. On 30 November 2002 the education Ministers of 31 European countries and the European Commission adopted the Copenhagen Declaration on enhanced co-operation in European vocational education and training and the principle has also been suggested as a way forward in the debate over energy taxation. However, some commentators would also say that the single European currency is an example of 'enhanced co-operation' since only twelve of the fifteen Member States belong to the eurozone as is the Schengen agreement governing free movement.

In essence the principle of 'enhanced co-operation' is the same as the often used terms of 'flexibility' or a 'multi-speed Europe' where an inner hard core of EU Member States would proceed down the path of more integration whilst other countries would not. Although this idea has been unpopular in Brussels, because of fears that it could lead to the fragmentation of Europe into two blocs, there is a growing realisation that this method might become inevitable in an enlarged union of twenty five Member States or more. According to Jean-Luc Dehaene, deputy president of the European Convention:

'With 25 countries it's likely that you have different degrees of integration, so that you don't have to wait for the slowest'.

This could mean that the European Union would be less able to present a united front. In her contribution to the Institute of European Affairs Conference on the 1996 IGC Brigid Laffan set out the main dangers of increased 'enhanced co-operation' as:

• its impact on the political and constitutional dynamics of the Union may be fragmentative rather than integrative - it may act as a centrifugal rather than a centripetal force.
• some states may find themselves outside the consensus to such an extent that they are semi-detached from the Union and the quality of their membership is weakened. This may lead to pressures for exit.
• greater flexibility may lead to the presence in the Union of a group of states committed to policy integration and institutional membership in the broadest and deepest sense, and in a wider group of second-tier states. This would lead to a de facto if not a de jure core. Put simply, flexibility could reflect a system of power.
• differentiated integration raises complex legal and institutional issues for which there are no readily available solutions

However as the European Union faces a growing crisis over the future of its Common Foreign and Security Policy in the wake of the diplomatic fallout from Iraq, the Belgian government is clearly keen to investigate all possible options to strengthen the EU's voice in the international arena. Although Britain has not been invited to the meeting on 29 April 2003, officials concede that the initiative is unlikely to be successful without one of the EU's leading military powers. The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, has welcomed the Belgian initiative as an indispensable step that would strengthen the EU's position in the international arena but said that there must be room for other countries to join.

Links:
European Commission:
	Archives of the IGC 2000: Factsheets - Closer co-operation
	Enhanced European co-operation in vocational education and training - the Bruges-Copenhagen process
The Council of the European Union:
	IGC 2000: Enhanced co-operation - Notes from the Presidency
European Sources Online: Financial Times:
	26.03.03:	Belgian plan is 'sign of multi-speed Europe'
The Institute of European Affairs:
	Enhanced Co-operation: A two tier Europe [2002]
	Accommodating diversity: Enhanced Co-operation in an Enlarged Union
United Kingdom, House of Commons: Library:
	IGC 2000: Enhanced Co-operation [Research Paper 00/88, November 2000]
BBC News Online:
	30.04.01:	Closer co-operation
	08.12.00:	Enhanced co-operation
European Sources Online: In Focus
	European Council, Nice, 7-11 December 2000
	Treaty of Nice signed 26 February 2001. What next for the European Union?, February 2001
	The Treaty of Nice comes into force, February 2003

Helen Bower

Compiled: Thursday, 27 March 2003

The Belgian government has invited leaders from France and Germany to attend talks on 29 April 2003 to discuss extending the idea of 'enhanced co-operation' in the European Union to defence.