CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / ZARAGOZA

ERRF to take up role from September subject to agreements with Macedonia and NATO

The European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF) is to undertake its first independent military operation in September when it takes over peacekeeping activities in Macedonia from NATO. European Union (EU) defence ministers agreed on the plan at a meeting in Zaragoza, Spain, late last month.

Javier Solana, the European Union's (EU's) high representative for security and defence, said that an agreement with Macedonia is required before deployment and a permanent deal with NATO is needed to allow the ERRF to use the alliance's infrastructure.

Solana says a deal with NATO can be reached before an EU heads of government summit at the end of June, adding that "efforts must concentrate on giving the ERRF the means to do its job as rapidly as possible and that means filling our capacity gap".

The ministers also gave "full backing" to a Spanish white paper proposing the establishment of a European arms policy subjecting the defence industry "to the rules of competition and to market regulations", and to eliminate previously highlighted capability shortfalls.

The EU's military committee will study the document and seek a formal proposal to governments from its chiefs of staff. A "political level" decision will be needed before the plan can be implemented, says Spanish defence minister Federico Trillo-Figueroa. Responsibility for moving the plan forward after the June summit will lie with Greece - which will take over its six-month EU presidency in January - as the intervening Danish presidency has decided not to deal with defence issues, says Spain's deputy defence minister Fernando Diez Moreno.

Sixteen working groups are studying ways of filling the 22 principal capability shortfalls. "We have the duty to ensure we don't have an unbridgeable gap with the USA," Trillo-Figueroa says, adding that ministers agree "to get more capacity we need more money", but investigating new forms of accounting and spending available funds "better" will be the first steps.

Source: Flight International