-Caveat Lector-
Friday, December 8 11:04 PM SGT
France gives in to Britain, heading off EU defense rift
NICE, France, Dec 8 (AFP) -
France, avoiding confrontation with Britain and the United States over a
European defense force, on Friday gave in to British objections that the
force enjoy a measure of independence from NATO.
At an EU summit here presided by France, the 15 nations adopted an
agreement on European defense and security already approved by EU foreign
mininsters, while "simplifying in the extreme" extra paragraphs that
referred to autonomy.
The new lines written into a draft EU document submitted to the summit had
suggested a degree of autonomy from NATO for the new European force.
"We simplified the paragraphs on European defense at the request of the
British Prime Minister, to which the French presidency willingly agreed,"
France's European Affairs Minister Pierre Moscovici told a press conference.
"I think this was wise. It avoided a semantic and counter-productive
quarrel ... The agreement was made without heated debate between the French
presidency and Britain," he said.
"We are happy to say that the European Council approved the presidency's
report and its annexes concerning European defense and security policy," he added.
Reacting to the announcement, a British government spokesman said London
objected to the draft text because it risked introducing new ambiguities on
the question of the rapid reaction force's relationship with NATO.
"We had a good text, painstakingly worked out and agreed by foreign
ministers on Monday," he said. "What we didn't want to do was start
introducing new language.
"The feeling was: 'Let's leave well enough alone. It's a done deal. Let's
not play around with it.'"
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was publicly irritated by remarks made
Thursday by French President Jacques Chirac that the new rapid reaction
force, to be operational by 2003, should have a degree of autonomy from NATO.
"There is neither a proposal nor a desire nor a decision on a separate
European military capability. If anybody says we have a (military) capacity
independent of NATO, it would be absolutely false," he said.
At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, US Defense
Minister William Cohen bluntly warned Europeans that NATO will become a
"relic of the past" if they set up a competing defense structure while
failing to live up to their commitments to the alliance.
He said US support for NATO would continue so long as the Europeans act to
build up their military capabilities and pursue an open, transparent and
non-competitive relationship with NATO.
Cognizant of that shot fired across their bow, the EU leaders decided to
delete paragraphs added to the defense and security section of their draft
conclusions, including one that said: "The EU will have an autonomous
capacity to take decisions and, where NATO as such is engaged, to launch
and conduct crisis management operations."
The EU summit in Helsinki a year ago mandated the creation of a rapid
reaction force of 60,000 battle-ready troops capable of jumping into
Kosovo-like trouble spots within 60 days and remaining for at least a year.
The force was to have had a degree of autonomy from NATO insofar as it
could move to quell trouble when the alliance was unwilling.
But it would also, according to initial planning, have to depend on access
to NATO's arsenal for heavy equipment, planning, communications and
transport.
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Analysis: Support for EU force slipping
Thursday, 7 December 2000 12:29 (ET)
Analysis: Support for EU force slipping
By PETER ALMOND
LONDON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The European Union's proposed Rapid Reaction Force
looked increasingly tenuous as the continent's leaders sat down in Nice,
France, for four days of crucial talks that could determine the pace of
political change in Europe.
What looked like a done deal on defense to underscore the EU's emerging
foreign and security identity appeared to be unraveling as U.S. Defense
Secretary William Cohen warned that any separate EU military planning risked
turning NATO into "a relic of history."
At the same time British officials, who largely put together the package
of proposals on behalf of the EU, seemed rattled at the strong domestic
negative reaction from opposition Conservatives and struggled to explain
both the details of the plan and comments by French Premier Lionel Jospin
that the new force needed "an autonomous military structure."
"We've been working on this for months and we are actually all agreed
exactly how this would come together," said one senior British civil
servant, who declined to be identified. "We worked this from a strategic and
military requirement. But now there are too many political leaders making
narrow national points."
The riskiest strategy appears to be for British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
who decided to play his defense card -- his strongest hand -- as a way of
balancing his planned refusal to give in to EU demands that he give up veto
rights on crucial areas of taxation and social security policy. Europe knows
it can't have any effective military power without Britain, and this was the
one primary area Britain could be at the heart of Europe and influence EU
political integration. Brussels sees Britain as essential to keeping the
United States deeply involved in Europe's security.
But with German Chancellor Helmut Schroeder urging European leaders to "be
brave" and let Europe's interests take precedence over national interests,
with EU President Romano Prodi similarly demanding a deepening of European
political integration before the EU expanded eastward, and with France
unhappy about NATO's predominant role in European security, Blair risks
ending up empty-handed.
In an editorial headlined "The Nice Ambush. Blair's evasions have weakened
him," Thursday's London Times said: "For Britain's EU policy, this was
always going to be a hugely consequential summit. Mr. Blair has done himself
and the country no favors by downplaying it. On return, he must level with
the voters. He should have done so weeks ago."
Much of that explaining has to do with why Blair and Defense Secretary
Geoff Hoon did not publicly insist that whatever shape the EU force took it
would be developed entirely under NATO and would not develop its own
planning staff. While French President Jacques Chirac appeared to agree to
that when he met Blair at a pub in the north of England last week, that was
clearly not what Jospin, representing a strong political constituency in
Paris, believed.
While strongly defending the soundness of the plan Wednesday, senior
British officials admitted they had only 95 percent of French officials with
them. They would not comment on the political power of the remaining 5
percent.
"Great Euro Army Fiasco (now who's 'fundamentally dishonest Mr. Blair?)"
shouted a headline in Thursday's Daily Mail newspaper, in response to
Blair's criticism of that newspaper's screaming reactions against the
European Rapid Reaction Force.
"It is not a Rapid Reaction Force," insisted a struggling British Ministry
of Defense official Wednesday. "It is a European Force Pool for Crisis
Management. It includes policemen." But then he used the word "force"
himself, and tried to correct himself.
Part of the officials' problems in explaining it is that while Britain
insists that any sizeable expeditionary force would be commanded by the
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, currently British Gen. Rupert Smith, the
French have not said who will command it.
The British also appear certain that a building being acquired in Brussels
to house up to 130 military staff and some 200 civilians will not be an EU
force headquarters, but will merely be a 'secretariat' that provides advice
and "security culture" for EU officials and visiting ministers.
In apparently rejecting Cohen's call for the EU force to rely on the
planning staff of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Jospin
said: "The Nice summit this weekend will put into effect the resolution of
the 15 (EU members) to create new institutions and autonomous military
capabilities."
The Daily Telegraph said Thursday that Cohen was quite right to draw
attention to the dangers such a structure would create for NATO.
"The Americans are becoming irritated by the (Blair) government's habit of
pretending that the new structures are different from what they actually
are, or that it has much influence over their development" the newspaper
said in an editorial. "Their vexation is a measure of how ham-fistedly the
affair is being handled."
Such heavy assaults on the EU Rapid Reaction Force from several
Euroskeptic newspapers appear be having an effect on the British public. Two
public opinion polls conducted when it was announced 10 days ago showed a
clear majority in favor of the force. Wednesday, in a poll of 1,000 people
done for the Conservative Party, 56 per cent said they were opposed to
substantial numbers of British troops participating in the force.
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