EU Summit in Cologne to give fresh impetus to European defence identity and WEU integration in European Union, announces Scharping

10/05/1999 (Agence Europe)

The European Council to be held on 3 and 4 June in Cologne should be the signal for departure of "very concrete" development of the European Union towards affirmation of the European Security and Defence Identity. This was announced to the press by German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping after an informal meeting held before the formal session of the WEU Council, which brought together the defence ministers of 21 countries. The ten full members of the Western European Union (which belong to both WEU and the EU), the five observers (four neutral EU countries and Denmark, which belong to NATO but which have an "opt out" since Maastricht with regard to the EU security and defence dimension) and the six associate members (members of NATO but not of EU: Turkey, Norway, Iceland and now also Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic). Following the recognition of the European Security and Defence Identity by the NATO summit in Washington (see EUROPE of 26/27 April) and after the entry into force of the Amsterdam Trea

ty, "all the contractual premises" for EU action capability in this field have been met, said Mr Scharping, who repeated that NATO remains the central instrument for security "in Europe and for Europe". Now, he said, the challenge is to place security policy "under the EU's roof", as equal partners of the United States. Discussion on this subject will "play a role" at the Cologne Summit, and will cover not only the transfer of WEU political and military bodies to the EU but also the strengthening of cooperation between the EU and NATO, said Mr Scharping. He went on to say that none of the 28 WEU countries is excluded from this process, including those who have asked to join the EU and NATO.

The signal for departure from Cologne should make it possible to set on track the objective of integrating a security and defence policy in the European Union, in order to achieve "concrete results" by end 2000, said Mr Scharping. He acknowledged the fact that this is a very ambitious goal, but felt it can be achieved. To the question of knowing when WEU will merge into the EU, he said this will depend on developments over the next eighteen months (the merger of WEU into the EU could be decided at the close of the institutional revision of the Amsterdam Treaty, which should be completed under the French Presidency towards the end of next year and which should become effective after parliamentary ratification). In the meantime, according to Mr Scharping, WEU will continue to be a "good bridge" not only for EU neutral countries but also for NATO member countries which hope to become members of the European Union. "We shall need this role for some time yet", he said.

In concrete terms, Mr Scharping also specified, expected evolution means it will be necessary to:

a) develop the EU's capacity to take on the so-called Petersberg tasks, as provided for in the Amsterdam Treaty;

b) identify existing "deficits" in security and defence and eliminate them rapidly (Mr Scharping cited strategic air transport, air surveillance, interoperability, information systems);

c) develop a more effective cooperation with regard to armaments (we made considerable progress last November in Rome, but there is still much to be done, said the minister. Europe, he noted, is on the eve of major decisions, perhaps this year, concerning for example a military transport aircraft. The key elements of the European armaments agency, whose creation was decided some time ago now, said Mr Scharping, are already in place, namely the Western European Armaments Group (with which Austria, Finland and Sweden have decided to cooperate) and OCCAR (formed on the initiative of France, the UK, Germany and Italy). Mr Scharping said there is already a "political core". To the question of whether "structures" are envisaged for concrete development of this European Security and Defence Identity, Mr Scharping said the possibility of holding meetings between EU defence ministers had been discussed (the first had taken place in Vienna early Novermber 1998), or regular meetings of chiefs of staff in order to achie

ve the effectiveness to which "we have grown accustomed with NATO".

The informal meeting was followed by the WEU Council session. The president of this Council (and of the EU Council), Joschka Fischer, affirmed that the "time is ripe" for achieving "substantial" results. He said this is the aim of the European Council in Cologne. He then pointed out that the German Presidency will present a report on ways to allow the EU to prepare decisions on the Petersberg operations, take such decisions and give them a "democratic legitimacy, and, finally, carry them out".