In Mali: Europe too slow. Hats off to France (Van Osch)

(BRUSSELS2) The statement comes from a European, the Dutch General Van Osch, who is the current Chief of Staff of the European Union. Speaking before a few parliamentarians at the end of February, he drew his " hats off to France for Operation Serval. " Mali would have been in a catastrophic situation if France had not intervened. We were planning to do an army training mission. But we reacted too slowly. » he acknowledged. " And we were surprised by the speed of the Malian collapse. » A confession that is not found in many mouths of Europeans today.

And the general to express regret. “There are a lot of European issues here: the fight against terrorism, drugs, questions of natural resources, the Sahel moving closer to our borders. It was easy to find a consensus. It would also have been interesting to provide logistical aid to the Malian army. But I don't have the budget. Governments need to put in place a mechanism for this. »

Commentary: It is rare for a first-ranking officer to express himself with such frankness. It is true that the general will leave his post in a few weeks. But his intervention is all the more interesting since the Netherlands is one of the rare countries (the only country of a certain size) to have kept away from the European training mission (EUTM Mali) sent to Bamako. It can also be seen as a criticism of The Hague, even if the general was too cautious to say such words.

General Van Osch spoke on a number of other subjects relating to European defence, capabilities and military spending. The details of his speech to MEPs are reserved for subscribers to the Club