Defence mini-summit is set to send “strong signal”

Date: 10/04/03

By Dana Spinant

ITALY and Greece have hinted they will join France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg when the countries' leaders hold a defence mini-summit in Brussels on 29 April.

Spain and Portugal are also showing interest in the initiative. According to diplomats, officials in Madrid have lobbied the Belgian government, which is hosting the event, to be invited.

A source close to Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, however, said no invitation was required because the summit is open to all member states.

If the two Iberian countries join in, together with Italy and Greece, the defence "avant-garde" group will represent more than half of the Union's membership. "A majority of [EU] countries on board would be a strong signal," a Council of Ministers official said.

However, the big absentee - overshadowing the whole project - will be the United Kingdom.

Gianfranco Fini, Italy's deputy prime minister, told European Voice he was certain that the original "gang of four" will expand in time for the mini-summit.

He said his country was "definitely interested" in participating in a defence union, however it is still unclear whether it will be represented at government leader level.

Fini said he hoped the push for a defence union would beef-up the ambitions of the Convention on Europe's future. "This should be seen as an incentive to the Convention to propose an effective foreign and defence policy," he added.

George Papandreou, the Greek foreign minister, has told Louis Michel, his Belgian counterpart, that Athens is interested in joining the club.

However, as holder of the rotating EU presidency Greece is expected to be neutral and would probably only join at a later stage.

The 29 April mini-summit will involve exploratory talks, a Belgian diplomat said, on what the members of this defence avant-garde should do together. The creation of a European Armaments Agency as well as a mutual defence clause similar to NATO's Article V could be on the agenda. Although the number of countries taking an interest in the defence union is growing, key politicians warn that it will lack credibility without the involvement of the UK.

Michel Barnier, the institutional affairs commissioner and chairman of the Convention's defence working group, praised the initiative but stressed it needs Tony Blair on board to be effective.

The only obstacle to this, he believes, is the collective defence clause. "They [the British] are interested in a common defence market, in an armaments agency, in improving capabilities," he said. But the UK would have a political problem with accepting an Article V-like commitment among EU countries because it would diminish NATO's significance.

Verhofstadt, who launched the idea of a core defence group, rejects the view that it cannot work without the UK. He believes it makes more sense for a smaller group of like-minded countries to do the spade-work, with London having the option to join in later.

Under plans to be discussed by the Convention's praesidium on 10-11 April, the European constitution would allow member states that so wish to boost military integration.

Italy and Greece have hinted they will join France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg when the countries' leaders hold a defence mini-summit in Brussels on 29 April 2003.