Federica Mogherini's Merry Christmas to the men and women on the pitch

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 Nicolas Gros Verheyde

High Representative Federica Mogherini (centre), surrounded (left to right) by General Mikhail Kostarakos (Greek General, Chairman of the EU Military Committee), Helga Schmid (EEAS General Secretary), Pedro Serrano (Sec. Gen . deputy in charge of crisis management missions) and Ken Deane (commander of civilian missions) (credit: EEAS).

(B2) It has now become an end-of-year ritual. " A tradition as the head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, said, addressing the 16 representatives of CSDP missions and operations linked to Brussels by videoconference. " We wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the end of the year » she said, apologizing in advance. with your families to keep you away from home ».

Surrounded by the main European leaders in crisis management, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy wanted to remind the men and women who are on the ground (around 4000), how much they were at the heart of European priorities now. She thus greeted “the work done on the ground, dealing with the challenges you face, all the positive or negative developments that you can see. »

A historic week

This conference comes at a historic moment for our security and defence. wanted to recall the High Representative. The establishment of the MPCC (the mini HQ for EUTM training missions, read: Military Mission Command (MPCC)) decided last year, as was that of Permanent Structured Cooperation (alias PESCO or the European Security and Defense Union) decided a few days ago, and the culmination of the work on the CBSD (the instrument for financing training and equipment in third countries, read: The strategy of equipping foreign armies) are among the most notable aspects of this reinforcement.

Strengths to complete

It now remains for these promises to be fulfilled. Among the twenty commitments to which they have subscribed on the PESCO, the Member States have undertaken to provide operations (EUFOR for example) and missions (EUTM for example) “ substantial support, including personnel, equipment, training actions, exercise support, infrastructure or other [...] ". This is commitment number 12. What is called the generation of forces is still too often slow and long. Some missions, such as EUTM RCA in Bangui (Central African Republic), still suffer from a lack of staff. We will gauge in a few months whether the countries keep their promises, especially those which have, for the moment, a very limited contribution to CSDP missions and operations in Africa (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria for example).

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)