The Parliament is for a permanent operational European HQ

In a firm and detailed way, the European Parliament committed itself on Tuesday to the creation of a permanent civil-military EU headquarters, by voting for the Ehler report. You have to create a " EU permanent operational headquarters “recall the deputies” to replace the current system of using one of the seven staffs available on an ad hoc basis ».

However, the parliament goes further. It even suggests the creation of a “joint staff of the Union for crisis management” bringing together this operational staff and the CCPC; this civil-military headquarters (1) would be “ responsible for the operational planning and conduct of all Union civilian missions, military operations and security sector reform missions ". Chains of command separate " will however have to be maintained, considers the European Parliament, with a civilian operation commander and a military operation commander, at " same level » hierarchical (2).

The EP also calls for " the significant strengthening of civil planning capacities ". The Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), in other words the EU Civilian Military Staff, needs to be strengthened, staffed and better organised, with a better distribution of tasks between the strategic and operational levels ". He also asks for the reinforcement of the role of the Heads of Delegations of the European Union, when they are present in a crisis area, in civil-military coordination actions, also to ensure closer political control of military actions ».

Civilian personnel: Member States do not keep their promises

Parliament also pointed the finger the problem of the lack of personnel specialized in the planning of civilian missions and the building of civilian capacity ", asking in particular " to ensure that the "crisis management and planning" directorate includes a sufficient number of specialists in all the priority areas of civilian capability », such as the police, justice, civil administration, civil protection...

« Member States must keep their promises commented Christian Ehler, Parliament's rapporteur. " Commitments made by member states for civilian crisis missions exist only on paper. Germany thus explained, at the end of 2009, that less than a fifth of the 1228 civilians promised were available ».

Read also:

• (1) How to move forward with the idea of ​​a permanent HQ
• (2) Comment: The permanent HQ: we are not very far from it if…
• On battlegroups and their funding, read the fore-post: Permanent, jointly funded battlegroups?

More: read the adopted report