Parliament votes for a new ambition for the PeSDC

(BRUSSELS2) Arnaud Danjean's report on " the implementation of the European security strategy and the common defense and security policy », was voted on at midday in Strasbourg by a large majority (480 votes for, 111 against, 64 abstentions), is intended to convey another ambition for the PeSDC. It also calls on the Council to strengthen its relations with the Parliament and to give it a greater role and to develop new missions. Finally, he considers the time has come to end the WEU Treaty. The main points of the report...

The claim of another ambition

« The Union must strengthen its strategic autonomy through a foreign, defense and security policy, strong and efficient ” estimates the Parliament. He affirms his reiterated support for the Union's efforts to respond to (the) threats and challenges developing a proactive and comprehensive approach, bringing into synergy the various means of action - civilian and military -". The High Representative should act very quickly to give the Union more coherence in its external policies.

A Defense Council. Parliamentarians support the legitimacy and usefulness of a Council of Defense Ministers, within the framework of the Foreign Affairs Council, made up of Defense Ministers, under the chairmanship of the Vice-President/High Representative, and which would have a particular role in the development of military capabilities (a decision that could come into force soon, read).

A permanent operations center. It is necessary " create a permanent Union operations centre, placed under the authority of the Vice-President/High Representative, and whose mission would be operational planning and the conduct of military operations. (The EP) calls for this operations center to be attached to the EEAS ". This center should be located in the same place as the CPCC (Civilian General Staff) with the idea of ​​ensuring the " necessary synergies between civilian and military ". The current system, with seven staffs, " entails a loss of efficiency, responsiveness and considerable costs and that a permanent interlocutor in the military field is necessary for civil-military coordination on the ground “, underlines the EP.

A complete external service. Parliament wants provide the EEAS with a permanent structure concentrating the support functions common to civilian missions and military operations” (recruitment and procurement procedures). It is a question of remedying the shortcomings observed regularly in the recruitment of certain management specialists in the missions and that those " can concentrate on their primary mission”.

More effective military means. The European Parliament advocates the use of Eurocorps, where appropriate, by the Union, and a " more flexible use of battlegroups so that they can be used also as a reserve force or as a partial substitute in the event of a disappointing force generation process ". Incidentally, the Parliament "regrets that the battle groups, despite the cost they represent, have still not been used until now, for political reasons but also because the conditions for their deployment are very strict"

A civil protection force. Parliament wants reopen the debate on the establishment of a European civil protection force, on the basis in particular of the Barnier report of May 2006, pooling the means of the Member States to offer an effective collective response in the event of natural disasters or due to the man, inside the Union as well as outside ". He also believes that " the military ESDP/CSDP must also make it possible to respond to these civilian risks».

Streamlined financial procedures. Parliament suggests, within the framework of the revision of the financial regulation, to relax the rules and procedures applicable to crisis management, an area which must meet specific requirements (speed of deployment, security considerations, etc.).

The strengthened European Defense Agency. It is necessary " to further exploit the potential of the European Defense Agency (EDA) in accordance with the new treaty, to provide it with a budget commensurate with the expectations placed on it and to give it more predictability in its work thanks to the adoption of 'a financial framework and a three-year work programme' underlines the Parliament which Calls on the Member States to finalize as soon as possible the administrative arrangement between the EDA and the Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) and the security agreement between the Union and OCCAR so as to effectively organize their cooperation in the field of armaments ».

Involvement in the anti-missile shield. " The new version of the anti-missile shield envisaged by the administration
must be done on the basis of a common vision of European countries on the subject, in coordination with Russia, and by promoting the participation of the European defense industry in the implementation of this shield ».

Demands of Parliament

The European Parliament wants to engage the debate with the Council and the national parliaments on " the entry into force of the new provisions of the Lisbon Treaty " the mutual assistance clause, the solidarity clause, the role of the High Representative and the European External Action Service, a broader mandate for the CFSP, permanent structured cooperation, the establishment of a start-up fund.

More generally, he wants to have a new role in the PeSDC:

- be informed "in advance" of missions and operations in preparation as well as their progress;

- to be informed " regularly appear» on the use of ATHENA mechanism and the start-up fund, “ as it already does for the use of CFSP appropriations for civilian missions ";

- be " associated with the processes of feedback operations; in particular to be informed about the first annual report on the identification and implementation of feedback for civilian missions”;

- be held " regularly informed of Member States' efforts to achieve civilian and military capacity building objectives (defined in December 2008);

- a " revision "Of interinstitutional agreements of 2002 between the European Parliament and the Council on the EP's access to sensitive Council information in the areas of ESDP and CSDP, " so that the Members responsible, in particular the Presidents of the
"security and defence" and "human rights" sub-committees, can have the information they need to exercise their prerogatives in an informed manner ».

- the revision of the European security strategy should take place every 5 years, in coincidence with the start of a new parliamentary mandate, and the European Parliament should be consulted.

He considers it necessary to draft a "White Book", offering the possibility of a broad public debate, which would "strengthen the PeSDC".

New missions in the Indian Ocean, Pakistan and Kosovo

The parliamentarians welcome the future training mission for Somali forces (EUTM Somalia, which starts in May); a future mission strengthening the maritime surveillance capacity of countries bordering the Indian Ocean (in application of the Djibouti code);

They support the Council's proposal to examine the possibility of an assistance mission to Pakistan for the reform of the security sectors and the building of a capacity to fight terrorism;

In Kosovo, he asks the Council to consider the possible deployment of a CSDP military operation to relieve KFOR.

Finally, he speaks for the " strengthening and new format of the assistance mission at the Rafah border post (EUBAM Rafah) ».