Today's Date:

At the Cologne European Council, the Fifteen decided to embark upon a European security and defence policy to enable the European Union to play its full role on the international scene. Our two countries welcome the fact that, at the Nice European Council, the European Union will acquire the necessary capabilities for this enterprise and thus have available to it the whole range of civil and military crisis management instruments.

1. In this respect, the forthcoming Capabilities Commitment Conference will mark a decisive stage in realizing the military capability objectives laid down by the Helsinki European Council.

Regarding the civil aspects of crisis management, France and Germany also note with satisfaction the progress achieved in defining the policing objective set at Feira and in other practical domains, in particular for reinforcing the rule of law.

They emphasize the importance of bringing together the civil and military instruments which give the EU, alone capable of having a full range of assets, its unique competence in the sphere of crisis management.

2. To ensure that these civil and military capabilities can be brought effectively into use, France and Germany reaffirm their common will to work for the adoption in Nice of the decisions creating the permanent political and military structures needed for crisis management, in accordance with the mandate from the Feira European Council. They restate their common determination to see these structures become operational as soon as possible after the Nice European Council.

3. At a time when a decisive step forward on the development of the European Security and Defence Policy is about to take place at the Nice European Council, France and Germany reaffirm the openness and transparency of this approach vis-à-vis all the European Union partners, having due regard for the EU's decision-making autonomy. So they reiterate the great importance they attach to the dialogue, consultation and cooperation with European Allies and other candidate countries, as well as to consultation and cooperation with NATO.

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There can be no European Security and Defence Policy unless a true European security culture is developed. Convinced of the need to put in place the necessary capabilities to develop this common culture, starting with the training of senior civilian and military personnel, France and Germany have, as envisaged at Mainz, outlined the concept of a European Security College which they intend to submit very soon to their European partners. Keen to see a rapid development of the ESDP, Germany and France stress that the necessary decisions on the creation of a college should be taken very soon. At their next meeting, they will review the headway already made and consider what progress they would still like to achieve.

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The development of the European Security and Defence Policy depends on the will of member States to make the necessary concrete efforts, particularly as regards strategic transport, intelligence, command and the development of a European security culture.

1. France and Germany stress the importance for the development of the strategic mobility of European Union forces of the decisions on the acquisition of the A400m Airbus as the future military transport aircraft and confirm their commitments in this field. They also welcome the work initiated by the European Air Group with a view to strengthening European strategic transport capabilities.

2. France and Germany are committed to the development of an independent European satellite observation system.

In this respect, they stress the complementary nature of the initiatives recently set in train: the development of the German SAR-Lupe system and the Franco-Italian Cosmos-Skymed Pleiad programme. They note with satisfaction the efforts to create in the longer term a federated satellite reconnaissance system destined to be opened up to other European partners.

3. France and Germany welcome the conversion of the European Corps Staff into a rapid reaction staff, as decided in the margins of the Cologne European Council by the States participating in the European Corps, which is thus added to the command structures available for European Union and NATO actions. They place on record their shared determination to see it become a rapid reaction Corps as soon as possible. They will propose the Franco-German Brigade as an initial deployment brigade in order to reinforce the European Corps' operational capabilities.

The success of the European Corps staff's involvement in Kosovo is a matter of satisfaction for both our countries, which instigated the creation of this major multinational unit. Making the headquarters available for a NATO operation has demonstrated its operational effectiveness and proved that improved European capabilities are of benefit not only to the EU but also to the Alliance and therefore to the vitality of the transatlantic link.

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France and Germany welcome today's signature by the Defence Ministers, in the margins of the Franco-German Council, of the agreement to set up a common training centre for Tigre helicopter pilots at Luc en Provence.

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Ten years after the signing of the CFE Treaty in Paris on 19 November 1990, France and Germany reaffirm the importance for European security of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and of compliance with the commitments entered into therein, as reaffirmed at the Istanbul Summit.

As they stated in Istanbul, our two countries are in favour of the Treaty rapidly coming into effect, as soon as the State Parties comply with the approved ceilings for equipment and armaments./.