Operations Center

A resolution setting out all details for the establishment of a military headquarters for the ,,planning and management of EU missions"has been prepared for approval by the heads of state of the EU states at the summit meeting in Brussels. Thus, a ,,unit with civilian and military components"consisting of 30 officers and civil servants will be established ,,within the military staff"of the EU. This will also create the core which, when needed and with enlistment of additional military staff and representatives of member states, will serve as an instrument for planning and management of independent EU military operations ( ,,Operations Center").

Guidelines

The EU's first military mission, with its intervention troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will provide the standard for the operations, independently planned and led by the EU's ,,Operations Center."More extensive operations, e.g. the so far greatest military deployment by the EU in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will remain the responsibility of the EU's military planning group in the NATO headquarters ,,Shape"which will become a permanent facility. Independent EU military operations will continue to be subject to the right of veto by the member states: ,,Planning Cell"and ,,Operations Center"are to be utilized only with a unanimous resolution by the Council of Ministers. ¹⁾Observers recognize London's intention to show consideration for the ally USA. ²⁾The details of the present provisions had been negotiated among British, German and French experts and were not presented to the other EU members until the second half of October.

Reservations

The first planned battle groups for EU operations are currently being assembled. This includes 13 multinational ,,battle groups,"small battle groups, each consisting of 1,500 elite troops, 4 of which will include German participants. The first battle groups are supposed to be ready for deployment by January 2005, the rest are to follow by 2007, so that at least two parallel missions would be possible. ³⁾In the line-up of the battle groups legal and political reservations by the smaller EU members will be ignored and abrogated. This applies especially to those states which join with Germany in the assembly of such a unit. The German-Dutch-Finnish ,,battle group"for example, forces Finland to change its law which had permitted the deployment of Finnish troops abroad only under a UN mandate. Parliamentary president, Lipponen, declared that Finland must be prepared for ,,low intensity"operations. ,,Low intensity"operations are military operations which pretend not to fall under the concept of ,,war." ⁴⁾Just last year, the Finnish government had sharply criticized the military policy predefinitions with which Berlin and Paris force the institutionalization of the military ,,European Core."

Good Signal

The neutrality provision of the Austrian constitution will be abrogated for the most part when Austria joins Germany and the Czech Republic in providing an additional ,,battle group."Critics of Austrian participation in the battle groups insist that neutrality means ,,non-participation in wars and organizations which serve in the preparation for and participation in wars." ⁵⁾The opposition parties SPOe and the Greens, however, demand only a UN mandate for deployment of the ,,battle group."The government parties OeVP and FPOe don't even consider that necessary and find the participation of Austrian soldiers in EU battle groups completely unobjectionable. ⁶⁾In this they are supported by German Defense Minister Struck who considers the dispatch of Austrian soldiers as a ,,good signal for better integration into the EU"explains that neutrality would ,,not be an obstacle." ⁷⁾

Further and Further

The German Bertelsmann Foundation, once again, makes its name by pressing ahead with the militarization of the EU. Since 1999, this organization, cooperating closely with the Foreign Office, moderates the so-called ,,Venusberg Gruppe"(Venus mountain group), an informal network of leading foreign policy and military policy European think tanks as well as the national and European government agencies and institutions which are responsible for making decisions. In this context the German Bertelsmann Foundation responded with a strategy paper ( ,,European Defense Strategy") which recommends military and paramilitary measures which will enable the EU to conduct ,,more extensive operations, on a larger scale and with more combat capability for longer time periods." ⁸⁾

According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, the development of the ,,battle groups"is far from sufficient to meet the ,,global challenges": In addition to the development of highly mobile and rapid deployment battle groups, the EU must ,,systematically extend the whole spectrum of its capacity to enable it to perform military missions for the enforcement of peace as well as peace missions."For that purpose, the management and command structures of NATO must be reformed so that they can be at the disposal for military operations of the EU as an effective platform for planning and management. The development of independent strategic command structures shall be pursued simultaneously. A further demand is the development of an ,,EU security council"in which decisions concerning EU military operations can be made ,,rapidly and reliably."The German foundation strives for the matter of fact recognition of the world wide promotion of its own interests by martial means. According to the manager in charge of the project of the Bertelsmann Foundation: ,,Europeans must learn to view such tasks categorically from a global and generally strategic perspective." ⁹⁾

1) Vormarsch auf Samtpfoten. Die EU bekommt nun doch eine Art militaerisches Hauptquartier. Gelungener Kompromiss; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.12.2004. See also EU-Military Operation in the Congo
2) see also Honest Broker
3) Das Battlegroup-Konzept; www.bits.de
4) Finnland will seine Battle Groups auch ohne UNO-Mandat einsetzen; Der Standard 11.12.2004
5) Fackelzug gegen die Beteiligung Oesterreichs an den EU-Schlachtgruppen; www.friwe.at
6) Battle Groups beunruhigen Opposition; Kurier 22.11.2004. Neutralitaet versus Kampftruppen; www.wienweb.at 03.12.2004
7) Struck zu ,,Battle-Group": Neutralitaet kein Hindernis; www.orf.at 05.12.2004
8) see also Criminal
9) Mobile Battlegroups nur ein erster Schritt; www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de 24.11.2004