Spain steps up military ties with France

By Ariel Alexovich

Date: 17/11/05

In establishing its first defence alliance, Spain has taken a significant and much-needed step in boosting its status in EU defence matters, policy analysts say. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and French President Jacques Chirac last week (10 November) announced the creation of a Franco-Spanish defence council which will meet annually to promote an open dialogue on security matters.

France already has similar alliances with Germany and the UK, but an alliance with Spain offers both nations the chance to discuss more Mediterranean-focused issues. The council will include the government leaders and foreign and defence ministers.

"It shows the fact that Spain wants to be seen as a bigger player in defence and also in the EU in general," said Daniel Keohane, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London. "Spain is realising it's not as effective as it should be. Spain is quite an effective foreign policy player but not so in defence, especially not for a country with a gross domestic product like France or the UK."

Still, Keohane pointed out that the Franco-Spanish defence alliance should not expect to be as prominent as the Anglo-French summits because the UK and France provide most of the EU's military funding and manpower for peacekeeping missions.

"But that's not to say it can't be important in other ways, partly because it's part of the bigger picture of European countries having greater integration of their ministry ideas," Keohane added.

José Ignacio Torreblanca, senior analyst for European affairs at the Royal Elcano Institute think-tank in Madrid, sees the new alliance playing a role in patrolling North African immigration.

"It can bind France and Spain in Mediterranean policy," Torreblanca said. "They have realised that when it comes to Morocco, they haven't co-ordinated their efforts well. The effect of that is that Morocco plays them off one another. France and Spain realise that in immigration matters, they have to work in co-operation with Morocco instead of against it to bring the whole Union in co-operation."

Specifically, the Franco-Spanish Defence Council could develop better relationships with defence establishments in North Africa and set up a shared coastguard system, Keohane said.

He described the alliance as a savvy political move for Zapatero as he tried to promote a pro-EU image and distance himself from his predecessor José-Mar’a Aznar, whose centre-right government clashed with France over the Iraq war and the EU constitution.

"I think it is a very important development because though France protested against the European constitution, it doesn't mean European co-operation stopped," Torreblanca said. "I think this is a tendency to see increasingly that there are a number of multilateral treaties between Spain, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

"This is going to expand. Over the long term, it is very beneficial for countries to join these agreements from the bottom up."

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the French President, Jacques Chirac, announced on 10 November 2005 the creation of a Franco-Spanish Defence Council which was to meet annually to promote an open dialogue on security matters.
France already had similar alliances with Germany and the UK, but an alliance with Spain was to offer both nations the chance to discuss more Mediterranean-focused issues. The Council was to include the government leaders and foreign and defence ministers. Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Defence'.