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Deal over defence force

01 November 2003

Britain, France and Germany have finally reached a deal on an autonomous planning capacity for the EU defence force that can count on support from Washington. Under the agreement the EU will have a planning cell but it will not be called officially a standing headquarters. However the main option for planning European military operations will be to site them in national headquarters in the UK, France, Germany, Italy or Greece, an arrangement long accepted by Britain and of which the recent EU operation Artemis in the Congo is an example. But where no headquarters is nominated, the EU planning cell in Avenue Cortenberg in Brussels could be made operational. This would have "responsibility for generating the capacity to plan and run the operation," according to the agreement. In a concession to the British government the agreement says it "would not be a standing HQ", and would be up and running for specific operations only. A British proposal to set up a permanent EU presence at Nato's military planning headquarters at Mons in Brussels has also been accepted. In this compromise the plans to set up a rival headquarters for Nato in Tervuren have been cancelled. The matter was finally settled at the Foreign Ministers Council in Naples at end of November and will be implemented as soon as possible in 2004.

Independent 12.12.03 (Stephen Castle); Spiegel 12.12.03