EU: Rapid reaction force
01 November 1999
The Anglo-French summit in November in London urged the European Union to develop the capability to rapidly deploy and sustain a combat force of up to 60,000 personnel (corps-level) for crisis management operations. Up to 500 aircraft could be provided in support. Officials said that such a force would be able to undertake the full spectrum of so-called peace support operations (including fighting wars in the form of "peace-enforcing") but that the collective defence of Western Europe would remain NATO's mandate.
The proposed EU force should be capable of full deployment within 60 days and be sustained for at least a year. Senior US decision makers, while welcoming efforts to strengthen Europe's defence capabilities, have stressed that in time of crisis full consultation should take place in NATO's North Atlantic Council before a decision is made that the alliance will not undertake military action and that the EU will act. The recent talk of an "autonomous" EU defence capacity has aroused concern in Washington. In October Deputy Secretary of State Talbott warned in a speech that autonomy could split NATO by leading European countries to consult among themselves first in a crisis rather than with the Americans. French president Chirac and UK prime minister Blair agreed to make their joint service headquarters - France's Centre Operational Interarmees and the UK's Permanent Joint Headquarters - available as options to command EU-led operations. A multinational cell including officers of other EU nations will be located at each headquarters.
In the first week of December the German-French summit in Paris also took some decisions in this field. A German proposition to create a European military air transport command was supported. A decision was taken to strengthen and combine the means of intelligence, communication and control of the two countries. At the moment Germany has not yet decided to take part again in the common development of spy satellites, from which it has withdrawn for financial reasons. But the capability of the military communication satellite Syracuse-3 will be shared. Germany and France also have the ambition to let the general staff of Eurocorps take command of the KFOR mission in Kosovo in the summer of 2000 albeit under general control of NATO.
Jane's Defence Weekly 1.12.99. (Ian Kemp); Le Monde 3.12.99. (Jacques Isnard); International Herald Tribune 26.11.99 (Tom Buerkle)