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EU Defense (Doctrine)

From the cost of the Serval operation to the Maastricht criteria

(BRUSSELS2) The financial imperatives and the French military commitment in Mali (Operation Serval) seem to be very remote questions. And yet... The objectives of reducing the deficit to less than 3% in 2013 will be very difficult for the Hollande government to achieve. And with this delay will return the question of charging certain structural expenses to the deficit - such as defense - or cyclical ones - the additional cost of external operations (*).

The intervention in Mali is the most striking demonstration of this. France certainly intervenes nationally, but within the framework of the United Nations and within the European framework. The European Union having repeatedly expressed its concern about the Sahelian question. In a certain way, it carries out operations on its own behalf that the other European countries do not want to take on, or did not want to take on.

The continual weakening of defense budgets in fact renders many European armies unable to participate significantly in certain stabilization or peacekeeping operations, quite simply for budgetary reasons. It is not unreasonable to open, one day, this debate... even if it risks resembling a Pandora's box. Why this operation and not the others (eg Afghanistan, Kfor and Eulex in Kosovo)? Why defense and not other sectors?

(*) The Minister of Defense mentioned the figure of 30 million euros for the first 7 days. We can count, according to a first rough estimate (by running the "in-house" spreadsheets), that this operation could cost between 150 and 300 million euros.

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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