Mini-summit scheduled over military union

Date: 27/03/03

By Dana Spinant

THE leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are to hold a special mini-summit in Brussels next month, as plans to develop a defence union within the EU gather pace.

The four countries are keen to deepen their military integration as a step towards creating what French general Philippe Morillon has dubbed "a eurozone for defence" (see article opposite).

According to diplomats, such a union may be based on a mutual defence clause, similar to NATO's Article V, which commits the 19 member countries to defend each other in case of attack.

The possibility of enhanced cooperation between member states wishing to boost integration was introduced in the 1998 Amsterdam Treaty.

The leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg believe that a defence union within the EU is necessary, as the Iraqi crisis has underlined that a Union of 15 states can only develop a common defence policy that is built around a smaller group of pioneer countries.

Speaking at last week's summit, Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, described the idea of a defence union as a "step in the right direction".

However, officials at the Council of Ministers - and General Morillon himself - warn that a credible European defence policy cannot be set up without the United Kingdom.

"If the British are not in, this [European defence idea] does not exist," French MEP Morillon said. "It is the right step, I only regret the fact that it is only the four [countries] who are in."

The general, author of a European Parliament report on developing the Union's defence capacity, warned that only the UK, France and, to a certain extent, Greece have serious military capabilities. "It is not worth doing it if the Brits are not on board," he added.

However, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt rejects this view. "If at the moment of the Maastricht Treaty we would have said "we can't make the monetary union without Britain", the Belgian citizens would have continued to use the [Belgian] franc today," he said last Sunday on Belgian TV.

French and Belgian diplomats hope the UK and other countries will join their "defence circle" at a later stage.

"It is in no way about pushing anyone away from "defence Europe"," Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor said. "It is an open process."

However, an official close to Verhofstadt said it was too early to indicate whether London would join this initiative.

"Look at what the British representative in the Convention [Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary] proposes: they favour the status quo, and on some aspects their stance is a retreat from previous positions," he said.

The 29 April summit will study the scope of a defence union. Diplomats suggest that joint research, cooperation between defence industries, a common armaments agency and, possibly, a collective defence clause are likely to be at the core.

Proposals to allow a limited group of member states to deepen their military cooperation are currently being studied by the Convention on the future of the EU.

Commissioner Michel Barnier, who chaired the Convention's working group on defence, believes a "flexibility clause" should be included in the future constitutional treaty to enable member states to advance "further or quicker" than the rest in this area.

The leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are to hold a special mini-summit in Brussels in April 2003, as plans to develop a defence union within the European Union gather pace.