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EU: Foreign ministers agree on military spending

01 May 2002

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EU foreign ministers ended a long running dispute over the financing of military operations conducted under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in June. The problem was to agree over which costs for common military operations should be shared and which should be carried by the individual member states. Under the current EU treaty, military operations cannot be financed by the community budget. The Benelux countries and France, Italy and Greece had pushed for as wide as possible definition of "common costs". Germany, the UK and the neutral countries supported the principle of costs falling where they lie, similar to Nato, as well as reducing the number of items in the common costs category, since expenses could spiral. In the end, member states agreed on a compromise proposed by Spain, consisting of two categories of common costs, one for headquarters and another for barracks and troop deployment. There would be a third category of common costs decided case by case.

Financial Times 20.6.02 (Judy Dempsey)

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