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A dinner, at 27, very political but without concrete

(BRUSSELS2) (In Ghent) Thursday evening dinner, between ministers alone, was in everyone's opinion a good opportunity for discussion, casually, very politically. It had almost started badly. First of all, Cathy Ashton, who was speaking by video-conference, had to wait a few long minutes, all alone, in front of her screen, for the ministers to join the meeting room, sit down at the table and listen to her. And the beginnings of the discussion were rather laborious. Some ministers have started to read their paper. And we could fear that the dinner was, therefore, a discussion for nothing. Then the ministers cheered up, "raised their noses from their plates and started talking freely", as one participant said. The conversation then turned to very political questions...

French Defense Minister Hervé Morin was the most direct: “We must not hide behind the crisis; there is currently a lack of political will. Without pooling and stronger cooperation, Europe will lose its capacity for expertise. We have to make decisions. Today no European state is capable of playing a full role at the industrial level. Basically, it will be Europe or nothing (Also read: about the minister, hair-raising).

Strengthen the European Defense Agency, yes but

German Minister Karl Theodor Zu Gutenberg also insisted on the need to cooperate and strengthen the European Defense Agency. But he also expressed certain nuances, in particular the “national limits” to this cooperation which must be taken into account, he added. In Germany (NB: but also in several other countries), “we have an obligation to have all operations approved by the Bundestag; which sets limits. This is the case in Afghanistan where the Germans have decided to provide 90 more instructors for the Afghan army, but by withdrawing the Tornado crews. This in order not to cross the limit set by the Bundestag and not to use the reserve.

Several ministers have thus underlined the need to find more cooperation and to strengthen the Europe of defence, sometimes with nuances. As summarized by the Belgian Minister of Defence, Pieter de Crem, host of the meeting: “the economic context plays a role. We feel a need to cooperate and optimize all means. There are already concrete results. “But we also feel a certain” dissatisfaction with the way military cooperation has been conducted to date. This cooperation must improve. We felt a strong policy to really achieve the instruments and ambitions of Lisbon. »

The British Quack

Only quack. The British Minister, Gérarld Howarth, insisted on reminding his counterparts of tradition. There is a cooperation forum, "it's NATO", highlighting, according to some participants, the current weakness of the European Defense Agency, its lack of pragmatism and concrete projects... In other words, the United Kingdom still does not want to hear about Defense Europe and prefers bilateral cooperation 10 times better...

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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