EU in brief" "
“Our proposal to create the European Union of security and defence (EUSD) is antagonistic neither to the NATO, still less to the future defence policy of the European Union: it’s a contribution to accelerating a policy that can no longer be deferred”. That’s how Louis Michel, Belgian Foreign Minister, described the conclusions of the four nation mini-summit which recently brought together the heads of state and of government of Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg in Brussels. According to the four, the message of the meeting consists in the need to ‘reinforce the European pillar within the Atlantic Alliance and give ‘new impetus to the European defence project. The heads of state gathered in Brussels reached agreement on seven measures, including: the unification by June 2004 of the strategic commands for air transport, at the service of NATO and the EU; the establishment by 2005 of a European high command for multinational forces at the service of NATO and the EU; the acquisition of military technologies for civilian and military defence against nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons; and the creation of an emergency relief system for humanitarian aid in the event of disasters. The four, however, failed to define the procedures for the funding and implementation of the proposed measures. The future of the European common policy of security and defence was also discussed at the informal summit of EU foreign ministers, held on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kastellorizo on 3-4 May. The summit was also attended by European Commission President Romano Prodi, Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten and the senior EU representative for foreign policy and common security, Javier Solana. To the latter the 25 have given a mandate to present a framework proposal for the creation of a “European concept of integrated security” in time for the European Council of Salonika on 20-21 June. The discussion of the ministers focused on two aspects: the insertion in the future European constitutional Treaty of new provisions on defence policy and the reinforcement of European military structures.
