Althea or Eulex, Bosnia or Kosovo, do you have to choose?
(BRUSSELS2) The planned debate between Defense Ministers on the military stabilization operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Eufor Althea) on Thursday turned into a general debate on the presence of troops in the Balkans, according to information obtained by B2 . NATO Secretary General, present during the debate, AF Rasmussen, indicated that the reduction in Eulex personnel in Kosovo had a strong impact on KFOR (the NATO stabilization force in Kosovo), which was therefore obliged to compensate for the lack of staff. “ I want to downsize KFOR. We must choose and better coordinate efforts. If we are asked to strengthen Eulex, I cannot reduce the number of KFOR personnel. Eulex needs to strengthen its crowd control capabilities. The problem is not just budgetary, it is political” explained. To which the Italian Minister of Defense, Giampaolo Di Paola (former NATO commander), responded: “ if we want more troops in Eulex, we have to remove some elsewhere. (...) The important thing is also to better coordinate all the forces present »
Althea: below half of the minimum required
On Operation Althea itself, General Hakan Syren, president of the EU military committee who spoke in the absence of the head of mission, repeated what is regularly expressed in summary reports from the field : from a security point of view, it is no longer justified to maintain military personnel in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” A point of view shared by certain ministers, such as the German State Secretary for Defense, Christian Schmidt. Additional argument from H. Syren: the mission does not currently have the necessary staff: “ we are below half of the minimum required he assured.
Contributions for the mission and the reserve
Some countries, however, consider it necessary to maintain a mission or at least what is called an intermediate regional reserve. Gerald Howarth, for the United Kingdom, announced a contribution to the Reserve of 120 people ready to leave within 72 hours; Slovenia will also provide a motorized company. The advantage of this solution is to keep staff at home, without prior deployment. Which is intelligent… and economical. Bulgaria announced a contribution without specifying its content. And Romania is thinking about it. The countries of Central Europe: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia (the former tutelary power in fact Austria-Hungary, etc.) will continue to contribute to the Althea mission. For Hungary, “ it is important not to forget these “old” missions when we launch new ones » as a Hungarian diplomat told B2.
In Bosnia, a situation which is becoming “normalized” politically
It can be noted that compared to the situation which prevailed six months ago, the political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina has improved considerably. The formation of a government in February, as well as the agreements on a law on the census and another on state aid, as well as an agreement on military equipment, made it possible to fulfill a number of points which had remained unresolved for several years. . Certainly the terms of appointment to main government positions are not yet in full compliance with the rules of the European Convention on Human Rights and still require modification of the Constitution). But Bosnia-Herzegovina's European perspective is clear, with the full support of the 27 member states, as Catherine Ashton, the High Representative, recently recalled. The entry into force of the Association and Stabilization Agreement (ASA) – which was ratified by the 27 member states – could mean for Bosnia its reintegration into the race for membership. In Sarajevo, we hope to be able to apply for candidate country status by the end of the year.
