John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 242: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will report on the informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Finland in early October 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32367/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The informal meeting of Defence Ministers took place in Levi in Finland on the 2nd and 3rd of October, 2006. Due to prior commitments, I was unable to attend and the Secretary General of my Department attended in my stead.

The meeting discussed current operations including the current EU Operation Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A presentation on the current operation and future plans for Operation Althea was made by General Sir John Reith, the current operational commander. While recognising that the mission will be scaled down going into 2007, member States agreed that any drawdown of forces must be event rather than time driven. The meeting also discussed the EU Support mission to AMIS, the African Union mission in Sudan/Darfur. Member States welcomed the agreement of the African Union to extend the mandate for its operation to the end of the year and the need, therefore, for the EU to continue to do the utmost to support AMIS on the ground especially with financial and logistical support. The member States also agreed on the importance of continuing to engage with the government of Sudan to achieve acceptance of the deployment of a UN mission in Darfur. It was noted that in the absence of the Sudanese Government's acceptance it will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the required UN transition. During a working lunch the EU operation in support of MONUC, the UN operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was reviewed. There was also a discussion on potential support by the EU to Lebanon in the aftermath of the recent conflict there. Quite a number of the member States are extensively engaged in the UN mission in Lebanon UNIFIL II.

In a further working session, Ministers discussed the Headline Goal 2010 and the current status of the Force Catalogue, which sets out the capability requirements for the EU Rapid Reaction Force. The meeting also looked forward to achieving full operational capability for EU Battlegroups in January 2007, and discussed ways of improving co-ordination across the civil and military elements of EU operations.

In tandem with the informal Defence Ministers' meeting, there was also a Ministerial level meeting of the EDA Steering Board. The main item on the Agenda for the Steering Board was a discussion on the EDA's initial long-term vision, which has been developed by the Agency over the past number of months. The purpose of the LTV is to set out a view of the future global context and, against this background, the potential capability requirements for ESDP operations. While the overall thrust of the document was supported by the Steering Board as providing a broad compass looking into the future of possible capability needs for EU military forces engaged in ESDP operations, it is important to note the document is non-binding, non-committing and is not a document agreed in word-by-word detail by the member States. The LTV will provide some guidance on the focus of R&T initiatives which may be facilitated by the EDA and will feed into an ESDP Capability Development Plan to be submitted to the Capabilities Steering Board in December. Any future R&T Agenda or Capability Development Plans will have to be agreed specifically by the Steering Board on a case-by-case basis. The long-term vision is a living document to be reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis, probably every 2 to 3 years.

The meeting also reviewed progress on a major Force Protection Project which is being facilitated by the EDA. This is an ad hoc project where particular member States agree to provide funding for research projects to be managed and administered by the Agency on their behalf. Ireland is not participating in any ad-hoc projects at present.

Finally the meeting discussed the Financial Framework for the Agency for 2007-2009. There was general agreement that more information and a more compelling case for the Agency's proposals was required before any decision could be taken on the framework. The Agency is to bring forward more specific proposals to the next Steering Board meeting.