Civilian Headline Goals 2010, a semi-failure. The 27 are looking for solutions

(BRUSSELS2) The 27 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, meeting on 21 March, will reaffirm " the importance of developing civilian capabilities under European defense policy ", considered as a " priority ". A very diplomatic way of saying that the objectives set for 2010 have not really been achieved. And that the "persistent shortcomings already mentioned in the final report of the "Civilian Headline Goals 2010", have still not been resolved. The High Representative will therefore be responsible for proposing concrete solutions by the end of 2011.

The bad results of the "Headline Goal"

The bad results obtained by The Civil Headline Goal for 2010” can be explained by Italian MEP Roberto Gualtieri. In the report he is preparing for the European Parliament (on the CSDP), he points out " in particular the contrast between the staff units made available on paper by the Member States and those actually available for the missions (like) limited progress in human resource training: lack of common standards, limited number of training programs uploaded to the training opportunities program in the Goalkeeper "Schoolmaster" software environment”.

Too ambitious a goal?

Very pragmatic reasons also explain this situation, which must be sought both with an objective that is undoubtedly too ambitious in relation to the will of the Member States, relates Nicole Gnesotto, former director of the Institute for Security Studies of the EU in her last book (*). The tank of "5000 police officers is not filled simply because the Member States do not have the necessary units, or, when they exist, are reluctant to assign them to missions other than internal police missions".

A new roadmap

The 27 take up some of these criticisms on their own by drawing up a roadmap setting five objectives:

• attract a sufficient number of trained and qualified personnel;
• develop tools for missions: "finalized" goalkeeper software, more preparatory and flexible measures, better mechanisms for equipping civilian missions, including a "permanent warehouse solution";
• implement preparatory activities for civilian missions (as foreseen in the Treaty).
• strengthen the assessment of the impact of feedback (lessons learned);
• strengthen cooperation with third countries and international organisations.

Use of PSDC tools in civil protection

The ministers advocate studying the "new opportunities to effectively coordinate and exploit the full potential of CSDP capacities", in the context of the change resulting from the Lisbon Treaty, in particular with the justice and security sector. He also considers it necessary to strengthen the EU's capacities to react to a whole series of crisis situations, including the use of CSDP tools in disaster relief.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)