Pan-European defence too often lost in translation: ministers
(BRDO PRI KRANJU) - European Union defence ministers said Friday that individual states were refusing to contribute military hardware for use in the 27-member bloc's missions.
As a two-day informal meeting drew to a close near Ljubljana, Karl Erjavec, the defence minister of Slovenia -- which holds the EU rotating presidency -- said individual governments had to "make an effort".
"Our studies clearly show that we need extra capacity in terms of strategic air transport. It is true that some countries have these resources, but have not placed them at (the EU's) disposal," Erjavec said.
The type of cooperation sought could be seen in the broad lines of a side deal between the French, British and German governments agreed by representatives Herve Morin, Des Browne and Franz Josef Jung.
"We are agreed the three of us that maintenance of the Airbus A400M (transport carrier fleet) will be done jointly," Morin told AFP after the gathering at Brdo Pri Kranju, a mansion outside the capital.
Britain and France will take the idea further, developing a common stock of spare parts for the fleet of 130 carriers (out of 180 ordered), allowing the aircraft purchased by each government to be pooled for use across the partnership. For now, Germany will continue to go it alone on that element.
Morin cited a history of different technical and operational rules and regulations in the case of Transall planes developed jointly by French and German manufacturers.
He also highlighted the time it took to assemble hardware for the EU's mission to Chad, launched earlier this month and which is due to number some 3,700 soldiers at full strength.
The unwritten rules of growing European defence cooperation since 1999 have been based on special tactical cross-national groupings or multi-national rapid reaction forces.
However, deployment has sometimes been scarce -- with two EU tactical groupings of 1,500 men who rotate every six months, for example, yet to see active service.
Given member states' commitments in such as Africa or Afghanistan, and the desire, expressed Thursday, to develop EU defence capabilities with regard to Kosovo, ministers are concerned at the gap between concept and reality.
Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.
Webfeed
