EU gets ready for battle

At the stroke of midnight on 1 January 2007, the EU will have the ability to deploy troops in its own name at short notice.

The EU’s long-awaited ‘battle groups’ will be operational: two small military units of around 1,500 soldiers each will be available to be sent simultaneously anywhere in the world.

Later, as more battle groups become operational, 18 specialised groups will be available on rotation, two at a time, for peacekeeping and peace-enforcement missions.

According to Seppo Kääriäinen, Finland’s defence minister, "the prospects are rather promising".

At the end of October, the Finnish EU presidency held a co-ordination conference and was able to declare that the first two battle groups would be in place on time.

Finland, along with the Netherlands and Germany will provide one of the joint battle groups that will be on standby in the first half of 2007.

"There are no open issues concerning battle groups," Kääriäinen said later.

This, at least, is the theory. In practice there are still many open questions about how the battle groups will work. According to one senior defence official from an EU member state it is still unclear what type of missions they will embark on, how they will be deployed and how the EU will decide to deploy them.

In theory they could be used for expensive and difficult missions such as those taking place to stabilise Kosovo or Afghanistan.

One problem scenario frequently mentioned by diplomats is if the member state leading the battle group were unable, or unwilling, to embark on a mission.

According to the official, the potential political difficulties could affect the EU’s ability to achieve its goals, but "in reality it is very difficult for one member state to say no".

The question was cast into sharp relief by the EU’s recent mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the EU was asked by the United Nations to send a small force to help quell any violence that might accompany the elections.

In many ways, it was what planners envisaged as the archetypal battle-group mission - a limited number of troops, deployed for a limited time at the behest of the United Nations.

Still, Germany - which provided the bulk of the troops - was deeply sceptical about the mission, resulting in a series of heated debates over the scope of the mission and its duration. Observers say these difficulties were smoothed during the course of months, but could not have been resolved in the five days that the Council of Ministers gives itself after a general political agreement is reached to make a firm decision on the launch of a battle group.

There are also questions over who would provide reserve troops in case the mission got into trouble.

Kääriäinen admitted that he did not know how the battle groups would be used, but he said having them ready for operations was an important first step.

"We cannot say what the missions are…it is important that the first battle groups are in full readiness."

Poland’s Defence Minister Rados?aw Sikorski echoed these sentiments: "We are still at the beginning of the process," he said. But Sikorski acknowledged that there are still issues about how some of the battle groups would be transported if the need arose.

"Obviously for them to be effective they have to have the capacity to be brought to where the action is…We need both sea and airlift and other elements that make for a successful military operation."

Still, the EU seems willing to deal with problems as they materialise. "Defence systems are things that are planned over decades. It is a long-term process," said Sikorski.

Battle groups

• Each battle group has at least 1,500 personnel, although some have up to 2,000

• In total, there are 18 battle groups

• The Council of Ministers will take a final decision to launch a battle-group mission, a maximum of five days after initial political agreement

• A maximum of ten days after the final decision EU troops will be on the ground

• Operations are sustainable for 30 days

• They will last a maximum of 120 days with rotation

• Each battle group will have a framework nation responsible for operational control of the mission

• The battle groups can be used with a United Nations mandate, or under certain circumstances acting alone

• Four countries,Cyprus, Greece, France and Lithuania, have offered niche capabilities for the battle groups including water purification, co-ordination centres, force headquarters and medical groups

At the stroke of midnight on 1 January 2007, the EU will have the ability to deploy troops in its own name at short notice.