Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 10 together.

A significant achievement of the Irish Presidency in the development of the European Security and Defence Policy was the agreement of a new headline goal with a horizon of 2010, as approved by the European Council in June 2004. Reflecting the European security strategy, which was presented to the European Council in December 2003 by the Secretary General-High Representative Solana, member states have decided to commit themselves to respond to a crisis with rapid and decisive action, applying a fully coherent approach to the whole spectrum of crisis management operations. This includes humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. Member states have also recognised that interoperability, deployability and sustainability of forces must be at the core of their efforts and will be the driving factors of this 2010 goal.

The 2010 headline goal also incorporated the development of the EU's rapid response capability. A key element of the headline goal is the ability of the EU to deploy force packages at high readiness, commonly known as battlegroups, in response to a crisis as a stand-alone force or as part of a larger operation enabling follow-on phases. An example of the contribution an effective battlegroup could make in restoring peace to a region suffering from conflict is the Finnish-Irish peacekeeping battalion deployed with the United Nations force in Kosovo, KFOR, which has been the subject of recent favourable comment arising from its reaction to an outbreak of hostilities in its area of operations last March.

Member states have been asked to provide initial indications of commitments to such force packages, with a view to an initial operational capability in 2005 at a capability commitment conference to be held in November under the Dutch Presidency. The question of Ireland's participation in such force packages is under examination in my Department.

The 2010 headline goal will have no implications for national sovereignty, which is a fundamental underlying principle to participation in the European Security and Defence Policy. Ireland will continue to approach proposed missions on a case-by-case basis and will only participate in operations authorised by the United Nations and with the approval of the Government and this House.

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