EU needs better military, defence ministers say

Nov 19, 2007, 18:19 GMT

Brussels - The EU does not have enough transport, defensive armour or information to support its troops on the modern battlefield, EU defence ministers warned Monday.

There are 'gaps' in EU member states' ability to gather intelligence and protect their troops, and a lack of strategic and tactical transport, the ministers agreed at a regular working session in Brussels.

EU states also need to spend more on weapons research and run more joint equipment procurement programmes to address the shortfalls and harmonize EU military capacity, they added.

'Investing in the right technology is critical for the future of European defence, and (this) strategy is exactly in line with the absolute requirement for us to spend more, spend better and spend more together,' the head of the European Defence Agency, Javier Solana, said.

At the meeting, the defence ministers of the EU's 27 member states restated a previous commitment to send peacekeeping troops to Chad in order to address the growing humanitarian crisis there.

And they agreed to postpone cuts to the current EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia, saying that the political situation there was 'volatile' and a 'source of tension.'

But they failed to reach agreement on a three-year budget for the fledgling European Defence Agency (EDA), an organization made up of all EU states except Denmark tasked with promoting weapons research, production and cooperation in Europe.

France had called for a multi-year budget for the agency, but Britain opposed the move, calling for stricter financial accountability.

However, ministers did agree that they should boost their spending on equipment procurement by half a percentage point to 20 per cent of total defence outlay, and make at least 35 per cent of all procurement spending in collaboration with other members.

They should also raise their spending on weapons research and technology from 1.24 per cent to 2 per cent of total outlay, with a fifth of that amount being spent on international projects. The benchmarks are voluntary, but will be monitored by EDA, Solana said.

And they should work more closely together to identify the most important weapons technologies which could be developed on an EU level, ministers agreed.

That call is likely to prove controversial, as member states are fiercely protective of their national arms-development programmes - an issue they see as a matter of national security.

'Some member states have already defined what key technologies they want to preserve nationally. We will have to be very convincing to bring these national visions to European visions - it will not be easy,' EDA Chief Executive Alexander Weis admitted.

In 2006, EDA members spent a total of 200 billion euros (293.35 billion dollars) on defence, with 38.7 billion euros spent on equipment development and procurement, according to official figures. The EDA budget for 2007 stands at just 32 million euros.

In 2006, the US spent just under 500 billion dollars on defence, with 86 billion dollars spent on equipment.

A new EU treaty agreed in Lisbon in October makes limited provisions for a combined European military force.