Observatory on European defence, September 2004

13 September 2004 
General Affairs External Relations Council - Althea, Darfur, Iraq, Iran, European Defence Agency
The General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) discussed the involvement of the European Union in several regional crises. 
The Council approved the Concept of Operations (ConOps) for the Althea mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is to take over the NATO SFOR mission in December. 
Later on, the forces generation conference held on 17 September at Nato’s Shape Headquarters defined the contributions deemed necessary for the operation (men and means); on 24 September, British General John Reith was appointed commander of the mission. 
The EU continues to follow the serious situation in Darfur (Sudan), supporting the mission of peace of the African Union, and is considering the adoption of measures (including sanctions) against the Sudanese government. The informal meeting of the EU Defence Ministers held on 17 September considered a possible EU police mission, while on 18 September the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution no. 1564 in support of the current stabilization efforts, even if it does not formally acknowledge that what is taking place is genocide. 
Ministers discussed EU involvement in Iraq in view of an explorative Union mission to define aid proposals to be approved by the European Council on 5 November. On 14 September, Iraqi President Al-Yawar, while visiting NATO, urged greater assistance for the elections foreseen for January 2005. 
On 22 September, NATO decided to strengthening assistance in Iraq implementing the training mission for local forces decided on 30 July. Details of the mission, led by US General David Petraeus (commander of the analogous US mission), will be defined by the North Atlantic Council on 13 and 14 October. 
Following the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of 1 September, the EU confirmed its support for the action of France, Germany and United Kingdom to obtain a commitment from Iran to stop its uranium enrichment activity. 
Previously, on 6 September, the EU had invited Iran to cooperate more actively with the IAEA, as confirmed on 22 September at the UN General Assembly. On 18 September the IAEA, also supported by the EU, adopted a Resolution compelling Iran to clarify the civilian features of its nuclear programme by 25 November and calling for a suspension of its uranium enrichment activities. 
The Council also approved the budget of the European Defence Agency, the Steering Board of which met for the first time on 17 September.

17 September 2004 
Informal Meeting EU Defence Ministers - European Gendarmerie, Defence Agency, Battle Groups
The informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers held in Noordwijk, Netherlands, discussed several initiatives to develop the European Union’s operational capabilities. 
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands signed a Declaration of Intent for the development of a (multinational) European Gendarmerie Force, a framework for coordinating military police forces (gendarmes type) that can be employed abroad for stabilization operations, funded by the participating states alone. The force (800 men and 2300 reservists) will be deployable in 30 days. The Headquarters, established in Vicenza, Italy, should be operational by early 2005. 
Ministers confirmed their interest in developing the "battle groups” concept, in the hope of reaching Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2005 and Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2007. On the margins of the meeting, Germany and the Netherlands signed an agreement to establish a battle group and, on 20 September, Norway expressed its interest in joining them. 
Finally, the inaugural meeting of the Steering Board of the Defence Agency chaired by the High Representative Solana was held.

23 September 2004 
European Commission - Green Paper on Defence Market, Research on Security 
The Internal Market Directorate-General of the European Commission published a paper on the defence market, aimed at defining the issues and promoting greater European integration in a sector till now strongly regulated at national level. 
The commission proposes two reform alternatives: 

• a more restrictive interpretation of Article 296 of the Treaty (which allows for exemption from common market rules for questions related to national security) 
• the adoption of a Directive to open the defence procurements market albeit with specific rules taking account of the peculiarities of the sector. 

Therefore a process of consultation with the member states started that may lead to a European policy in this field in view of a integration and partial liberalization of the national markets. 
Moreover, the Research Directorate-General of the Commission examined the proposals for preparatory action for research in the field of security (65 million euro for the 2004-2006 period), in view of definition of the first specialized research programme dedicated to security. 
The Istituto Affari Internazionali is involved in two projects chosen by the Commission: ‘Sentre’ and ‘Astro+’, the only one related to the connection between space policy and security policies. 
Previously, on 2 September the Subcommittee on Security and Defence of the European Parliament demanded that the Code of Conduct on arms export became legally binding.

September 2004 
Europe - International Terrorism, Cooperation
In September, public attention and the politic debate in Europe focused on the fresh outbreak of international terrorist actions. 
Following the tragic attack in Ossetia, on 7 September the NATO-Russia Council urged the international community to take common action and to strengthen cooperation, also by developing an Action Plan specifying practical measures. 
Cooperation in the fight against terrorism was discussed in several meetings at European and Transatlantic level. 
The European Counter-terrorism Co-ordinator de Vries and his US counterpart met on 20 September at the Hague and expressed their intention to hold an annual EU-US meeting on these topics; liaison officers between Europol and the US Department of Homeland Security were appointed. That exchange of information remains the key to transatlantic cooperation in the fight against terrorism was confirmed by a following bilateral meeting on 30 September. 
On the European side, member States were reminded not to undermine the efficacy of the fight against terrorism by slowing down and bringing in national obstacles to cooperation.