EU military goals ‘not yet realised’ as peacekeeping abilities lag behind

Date: 15/05/03

EU DEFENCE ministers are due to conclude next Monday (19 May) that they have only been partly successful in realising their agreed military goals.

They will gather in Brussels for the third 'capabilities conference', assessing progress made on reaching the goals set at the Union's Helsinki summit in December 1999.

That set a target of the Union having a 60,000-strong force, which would be deployable within 60 days for operations lasting up to a year.

A declaration by the ministers is expected to note that a small force is now operational with the EU undertaking its first ever military mission in Macedonia.

But the statement is also expected to make reference to the Union's inability to undertake a 'higher end' peacekeeping operation such as one in an environment deemed 'hostile' or in a conflict zone distant from the Union's borders.

The ministers are also set to rubber-stamp the appointment of Rolando Mosca Moschini, chief of staff in Italy's army, as the new chairman of the EU's Military Committee. He replaces Gustav Hägglund, a Finnish general, in April 2004.

The third EU 'military capabilities conference' will be held on 19 May 2003 amidst expectations that leaders will discuss the EU's inability to provide a peacekeeping force capable of operating in a 'hostile' area or far way from the EU's borders.