The inglorious end of an operation
(BRUSSELS2) The EUFOR Libya operation will end on Thursday (10 November). Following the proposal of the operation commander, the PSC ambassadors approved this date which marks the end of a "non-operation". EUFOR Libya has never been deployed, except in theory, through the establishment of an operational headquarters (OHQ) in Rome and the planning of possible, eventual, potential deployments, in support of a humanitarian mission of the EU. In the end, the humanitarians managed differently. And this operation sank body and well.
Some lessons to be learned
This implementation marks the demonstration, by the absurd, of the situation in which the European defense policy is today. The combination of weaknesses does not lead to great ambition, on the contrary. Only a somewhat audacious political will that emerges from the "small ambitions" of each capital can serve Europe.
To set up operational planning, we are in fact reduced to building up a headquarters in a capital; even if this operation does not see the light of day. With an operational headquarters within the diplomatic service, we would have avoided what appears today as a open-country capitulation of the role of force of the European Union..., no doubt saved some forces, and finally benefited from a non-negligible feedback. Because the planning of an operation, even not launched, can benefit the next one.
It will no doubt be necessary in the future to avoid linking a military support operation to the decision of a UN office which does not depend on the department of peacekeeping operations. The goals and the means are different. And normally the European Union has the political and legal means to launch, autonomously, an operation itself which meets the objectives of a United Nations resolution, without requiring an additional agreement.
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