Agence Europe, 9-10/11/98

Olivier Dupuis MEP (Radical Alliance) commented on the meeting of EU Defence Ministers, in Vienna on 5 November, stating that, instead of considering new articulations between NATO, WEU and the EU, "our ministers could decide...to set aside their differences" and focus on "a simple question": the setting up of instruments allowing us to intervene in crises like Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo, by, for example, "as was requested by over 100 Euro-MPs and more than 10,000 Union citizens", drawing up a plan for the creation of a "joint European corps for peace-keeping and peace-reestablishment operations", made up of 50,000 soldiers under the authority of a Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible to implementing missions proposed by the Commission and jointly decided by the Council and European Parliament.