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European Defense

Article by Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defense, published in the "Financial Times" Newspaper

Paris, December 5, 2005

Security could be Europe's great rallying point

The European Union entered a period of uncertainty after France and the Netherlands rejected the European constitutional treaty last spring. The recent budgetary debates have not lessened that uncertainty.

While the Europeans will manage to overcome these difficulties, as they always have, I believe a combined initiative in the defence and security field could help revive both confidence and action in Europe.

This, after all, is the domain that attracts most support across the EU, as demonstrated in the constitutional campaign. Not least, the EU's citizens are aware that development of the European security and defence policy (ESDP) contributes to their daily security.

Today, there are numerous new security challenges, beginning with the daily threat of terrorism. For Europe, only close cooperation between governments and their intelligence services can provide an adequate response, at an international and, in particular, an EU-wide level.

At the same time, "traditional” war is still plaguing many areas, although the threats now come in various forms. In the absence of a Cold War-era global confrontation, armed conflicts in numerous countries no longer fit a coherent pattern.

To respond to such testing situations, solutions must be developed which, if not purely military, must be military above all. The first duty of a state is to defend the security of its citizens. A realistic and ambitious defence policy is therefore necessary. Europe, because of its values and history, has considerable potential and can contribute to peace and international stability.

With this aim in mind, ESDP is an effective framework within which to strengthen solidarity and links not just within the EU but with other peoples the EU wants to support. Far from being rivals, as some suggest, the NATO alliance and the EU complement each other on defence – as can be seen in the Balkans.

The EU's defence expertise must enable it to approach its relationship with NATO without any hesitation. A country such as France is thus both a driving force of European defence and a main contributor and operational pillar of the alliance. France is currently commanding the air force component of the NATO Response Force, as it commanded the international force in Kosovo and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

In recent years, ESDP has acquired an indisputable operational credibility, thanks to its operations in Macedonia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, today, in Bosnia, where "Operation Althea” has taken over from NATO. Europeans have real know-how in terms of crisis management and an ability to play a part at a military as well as civilian level.

The EU's tools include, at an operational level, a planning centre created in EU headquarters to improve capabilities to conduct overseas operations.

Second, following the EU's decision to create battle groups of 1,500 troops that can be deployed within two weeks, 25 EU states have committed themselves to set up 14 battle groups.

Third, the often touchy transition phase from military to civilian operations was taken into account when Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Portugal recently created the European Gendarmerie Force. Other countries are now joining and this new police force will be officially launched in January.

Finally, there is need for greater strategic autonomy in Europe. The European Defence Agency makes it possible to rationalise our efforts, establish our combined needs and consider future technological requirements. Above all, the agency will foster the emergence of a competitive European industrial basis in defence. However, the Europeans did not wait for this agency before starting common industrial programmes, including the A400M transport aircraft, the NH90 transport helicopter and the FREMM multimission frigate.

To back up future EU operations, we must also develop a common European strategic culture. The European Defence and Security College already operates remarkably well. On training, numerous existing bilateral programmes could be starting points – for example, the French-German or Belgian-French helicopter training cooperation programmes. We now want to study the feasibility of setting up a naval officer training programme on a European training ship.

These achievements prove that European defence is on the move. It has become a main pillar of our common policy and will no doubt play a key role in the relaunch of the European project, which is already under way./.