Today's Date:

1. France and Germany reaffirm their determination to ensure swift progress in the development of the European security and defence policy so that the European Union can play its full role on the international scene.

The European Union must have the whole range of civil and military crisis-prevention and management instruments at its disposal. The balanced development of military and civil capabilities gives the EU its unique competence in the sphere of crisis management.

France and Germany will be working closely together on the forthcoming stages so that the European Union's new structures may quickly become operational. In accordance with the goal set in Nice, a decision to this end will be taken at the latest at the Laeken European Council.

The EU's initiative on the development of the European security and defence policy is open and transparent. France and Germany confirm the great importance they attach to the dialogue, close consultation and wholehearted cooperation with the European allies and other EU candidate countries, as well as to consultation and cooperation with NATO. In this respect, we welcome the implementation of the arrangements approved in Nice which have led inter alia to increased cooperation on the Balkans. France and Germany are giving their backing to the prompt implementation of the decisions taken at the Washington Summit on EU access to NATO capabilities and assets.

2. France and Germany are convinced that there can be no European security and defence policy without the development of a genuine European security and defence culture. This requires joint training of senior civilian and military personnel. This is why France and Germany will be proposing to their European Union partners the creation of a European security and defence college. Training will be provided both by the college and existing national institutions.

3. France and Germany welcome the decision taken on 7 June 2001 in Berlin by the countries represented in the European Air Group to establish a European air transport coordination unit in Eindhoven in September 2001. This is a milestone on the road towards greater and more effective cooperation in Europe on military air transport. France and Germany consider the coordination unit a first step towards a European air transport command. They intend subsequently to promote the creation of a European air transport command on the basis of common objectives and in an appropriate multinational framework.

4. France and Germany, who will each confirm their commitment to purchase the A400M at the forthcoming Bourget Air Show, agree to develop a joint cooperation concept with a view to the commissioning and use of the Airbus A400M joint air transport plane. In line with the two countries' wishes, this joint concept is to concentrate initially on the training of A400M crews and ground personnel, and maintenance and logistics. France and Germany express their desire to open up this cooperation project to other countries which will use the A400 M.

5. Germany and France attach high priority to the development of a European satellite reconnaissance capability as a significant contribution to civil and military crisis prevention. They have drawn up a joint paper expressing this need. An important step towards the creation of a federated European satellite reconnaissance system has thus been taken. France and Germany are keen to pursue their discussions on this matter with Italy and Spain and extend them to other interested European partners.

6. We also talked about the United States' ideas on a new defence strategy and missile defence presented to the European allies during high-level consultations and at the meetings of the NATO Foreign and Defence Ministers in Budapest and Brussels. France and Germany attach great importance to the pursuit of this consultation process on every aspect of this subject. It should be continued in close cooperation with the European Union member States.

7. France and Germany consider that the risks of ballistic proliferation necessitate a strengthening of the multilateral non-proliferation instruments. They consider that the European Union should take an initiative to this end, based on the universalization of the Missile Technology Control Regime's Code of Conduct. Adoption of a common EU position on the fight against ballistic proliferation would give substance to this initiative which could lead, at the appropriate moment, to the holding of an international conference./.