The “defence” priorities of the Polish presidency. Absent Ashton
(BRUSSELS2 to Warsaw) Stimulate the operation of battlegroups, strengthen the EU's planning and management capacity (a military headquarters for the conduct of operations, develop pooling and sharing, open up partnerships with Eastern European countries, Poland's presidency has, in terms of defence, four priorities, quite concrete, far from the political ambition announced several months ago already (1) but which are nevertheless interesting Points which will be addressed during several seminars and the informal council at the end September in Wroclaw.
HR absent from Wroclaw
This informal meeting of Defense Ministers should take place without the presence of the EU High Representative. The latter has, in fact, forfeited (once again, gossip will say) with a good excuse: it must be in New York, for the Durban III conference on racism, which precedes the general assembly, where the issue of the Palestinian state should be addressed. The meeting will therefore take place under the chairmanship of the Polish Defense Minister, Bogdan Klich, on behalf of the HR.
Both tactical and political discretion
This discretion of the Polish Presidency is due to several factors. On the one hand, there is a new institutional deal. " In this area, you must have a proposal from the High Representative explains a Polish official. Then there is the lack of respondents on the side of certain partners, particularly in France. " We know that two States are reluctant, we will do our job as well as we can. When two states (Nb: France, United Kingdom) have made an agreement between them, it is more difficult explains our interlocutor. Moreover, this coldness between Paris and Warsaw is not limited to the field of defence; it more broadly concerns certain other questions such as the Schengen zone (and the Franco-Italian desire to limit it), the problem of temporary visas for Kaliningrad, participation in the Eurogroup... As a result, on the Polish side, there is no not very useful to display a political ambition if it is in danger of failing. The choice therefore fell on technical issues, even if this were successful, to raise these elements at the political level. " Defense is one of the key priorities, that has not changed, we are attached to it. If we can move forward, we will move forward »
There are also very internal reasons that the Polish presidency does not highlight too much. The holding of legislative elections in September somewhat complicates the situation for a liberal center-right Polish government, certainly far ahead in the polls, but which does not want to give arms to its opponents (PiS Justice & Droit by J. Kaczsinski or Social Democrats) or complicate the deal with an ally (the peasant party) with a more unstable fate. A major defense reform has been initiated with the abandonment of conscription, the abolition of certain bases, the merger of units... which is shaking the army and could be taken up as a campaign theme, such as the end of the engagement in Afghanistan had been a theme of the previous presidential campaign.
The "defence" priorities of the Polish presidency in detail (articles to be published)
- Priority 1: Polish ideas to stimulate battlegroups
- Priority 2: OHQ, convincing London: mission impossible?
- Priority 3: pooling and sharing, a few favorite areas
- Priority 4: Open to the East, to Russia
(1) Read also:
