Kosovo crisis likely to boost case for EU defence policy overhaul

Date: 15/10/1998

By Simon Taylor

THE crisis in Kosovo is likely to be seized on by the British government as evidence of the need for a radical overhaul of the EU's defence policy to allow the Union to take more decisive action in future.

British officials are currently working on proposals designed to strengthen the EU's ability to act, but is not yet clear when the UK government will come forward with firm suggestions.

Officials this week denied reports that the issue would be raised when British Prime Minister Tony Blair meets fellow EU leaders at their informal summit in Pörtschach next weekend (24-25 October).

Although details of the British plan have yet to be finalised, it is expected to propose scrapping the Western European Union (WEU). All its military duties would be transferred to NATO, with the political decisions needed to trigger military action taken by EU ministers.

Charles Grant, director of UK think-tank the Centre for European Reform (CER), claims the proposals currently being worked on by British government officials will include key elements from a pamphlet which has been produced by his organisation.

The CER document recommends scrapping the 28-member WEU, transferring its political functions to a new Council of Defence Ministers and moving its military tasks to NATO.

Neutral EU member states (Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Denmark) which did not want to play an active role in common defence decisions would be able to opt out in the same way as the UK and Denmark were given a choice over whether to join the single currency or not.

Under the CER's plan, EU defence ministers would meet regularly in a new Council, with any decisions on military action taken by that Council carried out by NATO under the terms of the Berlin Agreement 1996, which allows the organisation to implement decisions on behalf of its European members without the involvement of the US.

British officials said this week that the government was unlikely to go so far as to propose creating a new Council of Defence Ministers, but added that the idea outlined in the CER pamphlet was "one of the options" being considered.

Analysts say that British proposals may receive a positive response from France, given past French calls for a stronger military component to the EU and President Jacques Chirac's remarks in August on the need for a Council of Defence Ministers.

One crucial difference between the French and British positions, however, is that Paris would like to reduce the dominance of the US in NATO decision-making - something the UK is anxious to avoid.

Germany may also support the plan, given that Bonn has in the past called for the WEU to be absorbed into the EU, although the presence of Greens in the new coalition government is likely to influence incoming Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's response to the initiative.

The proposals could run into fierce opposition, however, from the governments of neutral member states which do not belong to NATO, and it remains to be seen whether giving them an opt-out from decisions to take military action would be enough to overcome their misgivings.

While the opt-out would allow individual governments to distance themselves from such decisions, some diplomats believe that the neutral countries will oppose any attempt to create a new area of EU policy-making from which they are excluded, even if voluntarily.

Countries with strong left-wing or Green parties in ruling coalitions could resist the EU taking on responsibility for military intervention without the full blessing of all 15 member states.

However, supporters of reform argue that the move would be backed by the US, which is likely to see it as providing a way for the EU to reach a common position on defence issues and shoulder more of the international burden of peacekeeping and conflict resolution.