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EU: Military mission at risk from Turkish rift:

01 August 2002

There are increasing doubts about the EU's first military mission following its failure to resolve a dispute with Turkey. The mission was scheduled to take place from October in Macedonia, where the EU had hoped to take over from the Nato-led Operation "Amber Fox", currently led by the Netherlands. This small Nato operation (800 soldiers, mainly from European countries) has a mandate to protect international monitors overseeing a peace agreement between the Slav majority and the ethnic Albanian minority. But the EU and Turkey failed to reach agreement on the terms for European access to Nato's assets, including planning. Such access requires agreement from all Nato-members and Turkey is taking a blocking position. Turkey wants a greater say in how decisions over any EU operations are made and assurances that missions would not take place in areas sensitive for Turkey like the Aegean Sea. Greece is now chairing the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) for the full year until July 2003 because the current EU Presidency, Denmark, opted out of defence policy. Some countries like Belgium, France and Greece suggested that the EU could go ahead without Nato agreement because Amber Fox is not considered very risky and France could take care of the planning. But Britain, Spain and Germany oppose the EU acting independently from Nato. Financial Times 19.9.02 (Judy Dempsey); Jane's Defence Weekly 24.7.02 (Luke Hill)