EUTRA Somalia mission green light from 27

(BRUSSELS2) The 27 Foreign Ministers (1) should give the "political" green light on Monday 25 January to the EUTRA Somalia mission. " The Council agreed to establish the military mission (2) to contribute to the training of the Somali security forces », according to the draft conclusions that I have been able to read. It is a political agreement but not yet, the formal approval of the decision. This still needs to be worked on, in particular by diplomats from the External Relations group.

Some questions still under discussion. The 27 should thus recognize “ the need for such training as part of a larger international effort ". This effort will include supervision of personnel in training, follow-up and supervision of forces after their
return to Mogadishu as well as the financing and payment of soldiers' salaries ". But these questions remain sensitive. And the 27 have also agreed that before the launch of the mission, we can find answers "of satisfactorily ». The EUTRA Mission should be led in close coordination with our partners, including the Transitional Federal Government, Uganda, the African Union, the United Nations and the United States of America »

Starting in May? The mission should aim - initially - to train 4 battalions of Somali security forces, about 2000 men, a training that takes six months. As this blog echoed in early January (***), this mission " should take place in Uganda ", in Bihanga, where the Somali forces are already undergoing training, " which should also facilitate the coordination of EU action with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)”. Ugandans should do the basic training. And the Europeans are adding specialized training modules, as this blog has echoed (4). Its launch is planned for spring 2010 (May, according to my latest information), at the same time as the training of a contingent of Somali personnel by the Ugandan forces begins.

Comment.

Why is a second green light necessary? In November, Ministers approved the Crisis Management Concept (CMC) and the decision to entrust a group with the task of studying the "possibility" of a mission (2) . We had then spoken of a "green light" for the mission (4). But, in fact, if it was the green light for some, it was an orange light for others. This formulation was intended to preserve the reluctance of several Member States but, at the same time, to allow progress in the programming of a military mission. It is also rather little
normal for a CMC to be so solemnly approved by the Ministers. In the meantime, two fact finding missions - exploratory missions have gone on site (in Uganda, in Addis Ababa at the headquarters of the African Union...) to study the different modalities. The conclusions published on the 25th therefore testify to a real will taken at 27... Even if the minds are not yet quite on the same wavelength...

The positive role of the United States. When she took office, the High Representative of the EU, Catherine Ashton, was moreover rather skeptical about
usefulness of this mission, as do certain Member States (United Kingdom, Netherlands, etc.). But they ended up consenting to this mission. The American desire to become more involved in the Yemen-Somalia zone, after the last failed attempt in the KLM Amsterdam-Detroit plane, is undoubtedly not unrelated to this "temperament".

(1) We speak of 27 for convenience, in fact in military missions, there are 26 Member States who decide, Denmark benefiting
of an opt-out.
(2) The Treaty of Lisbon abolished the distinction between military operations and civilian ESDP missions, we now speak of CSDP missions - in both cases. Similarly, we only speak of "decisions" in foreign policy, whether they are (common) actions or (common) positions.
(3) Read: Somali military training mission (Eutra): the last line... curve? (January 2010)
(4) Read: Eusecfor Somalia: 14 million euros. And the OHQ in Nairobi?
(5) Read: The 24th ESDP mission "EuSecfor Somalia": green light on Tuesday

(photo: a French officer in training for Ugandan soldiers who are part of AMISOM - credit: Ministry of Defense Fr. / Dicod)