Military - in brief (15)
01 September 2005
EU: EU agrees to open up defence markets. European Union defence ministers meeting in England at RAF Lyneham (home base of the British air tanker fleet) have agreed on a plan to open up Europe's arms industry to internal competition. The plan involves a voluntary code of conduct drawn up by the European Defence Agency (EDA) which would see defence contracts worth more than EUR 1 million advertised on a single electronic portal, so companies could tender for them. The aim is to restrict the working of Article 296 of the EU legislation that exempts the military markets from normal internal market rules on the ground of 'national security'. At the moment about half of the defence deals are covered by Art. 226. EDA head Nick Whitney has said that the code of conduct will take about six months to be operational. Countries could sign up when they are ready. At an earlier meeting of the EDA Steering Board, Whitney had made the provision that the plan would foresee in protection of classified information, security of supply between member states and opportunities for smaller specialised companies. Defence spending of the 25 EU members amounted to around 170 billion euro in 2004.
Jane's Defence Weekly 5.10.05 (Guy Anderson); AFX News 13.10.05
Germany. US military base to be extended. The US defence ministry has decided to extend its main European air force base Ramstein, according to MP Elke Leonard (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands). The military bases in Mildenhall, UK and Aviano in north-eastern Italy are to be dissolved and 500 soldiers will be transferred to Ramstein. The SPD politician welcomed the decision as a positive sign that Germany's differences with the US over the Iraq war had no negative impact on north America's deployment policy for Germany.
Süddeutsche Zeitung 25.8.05.
Europe: Ex-Nato generals accuse Europe of military failure. Two high ranking retired Nato generals have condemned the lack of European military capabilities. General Joseph Ralston, the US Supreme Allied Commander Europe until 2003 and General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former chief of defence and head of Nato's military committee argue in a 97-page study (European Defence Integration: Bridging the Gap between Strategy and Capabilities) that European leaders have "lacked the political will" to improve military capacities and plead for a pooling of defence resources. "Failure to meaningfully improve Europe's collective defence capabilities in the coming years," they write, "would have profoundly negative impacts on the ability of European countries to protect their interests, the viability of Nato as an alliance and the ability of European countries to partner in any meaningful way with the US to meet shared security challenges." The report calls on European powers to re-allocate defence spending so that 25 per cent of the budgets are spent on research and acquiring new weapons, while no more than 40 per cent is spent on personnel. For smaller armies it calls for increased specialisation.
Financial Times 12.10.05 (Peter Spiegel); Defense News 14.10.05 (Brooks Tigner)
UK/Israel: Hurndall's family express "disappointment" at verdict. In June 2005, Wahid Taysir became the first Israeli solider to be convicted of manslaughter whilst on duty in a active combat zone when he was found guilty of killing the British peace activist Tom Hurndall, in Gaza in April 2003. The court rejected defence claims that the malpractice of British doctors was responsible for his death and in August 2005 he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Hurndall's family welcomed the outcome but also expressed disappointment at both the leniency of the sentence and that the sniper had been "laid at the sacrificial alter of Israeli policy". Taysir has always argued that he has been used as a scapegoat because he is a Bedouin Arab. Speaking in June Hurndall's father said, "We don't feel that the underlying policy has been add