EU security strategy “will fail to provide coherence,” say critics

Date: 08/05/03

By Dana Spinant

A COMMON European security strategy to be drawn up by member states risks being "a vague set of generalities", a senior French EU diplomat warned last night (7 May).

"It will fall short of being a security doctrine comparable to that of the United States. We should have no illusions: it will talk about threat assessment, about nuclear weapons and international control regimes. But it will fail to provide for a coherent EU answer to those threats."

The diplomat's blunt assessment follows a decision by EU foreign ministers at their informal meeting in Greece last weekend on the need for the EU to have a security strategy in order to prevent future damaging rifts, such as the recent Iraq crisis.

The 15 tasked Javier Solana, the high representative for foreign affairs, with drafting the strategy. He is due to present the document at the Thessaloniki summit on 20-21 June.

Simon Lunn, secretary-general of NATO's parliamentary assembly, welcomed the move, but also predicted the result would be vague.

"It will probably be like NATO's Strategic Concept [adopted at the 1991 Rome summit]: focusing on objectives, new threats, means, etc. But the most useful thing would be [for the Europeans] to define the range of their ambitions.

"NATO said [in the Strategic Concept] that it would act anywhere in the world where the security of its members is at stake. But what will the EU do? Will it confine its action to Europe and its periphery?

"Or will it go global? Would it have the means to do that?"

Lunn reckons the draft prepared by Solana will fail to answer those crucial questions.

Representatives of the Greek presidency said the aim of the European strategy was to define a common EU view on issues such as threat assessment, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, regional conflicts, as well as rogue and failed states.

However, the thorniest issue is whether member states can agree on when the use of force may be appropriate.

As has been seen during the Iraq crisis, some EU countries (UK, Spain and Denmark) backed the use of pre-emptive strikes to topple Saddam Hussein. By contrast, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg contested the legitimacy of such action.

"How will it then be possible to come to a common approach on the use of force?" a German Commission official asked rhetorically.

A common European security strategy to be drawn up by Member States risks being 'a vague set of generalities', a senior French EU diplomat warned on 7 May 2003.