Observatory on European defence, July-August 2006

1 July 2006
European Union - Finnish Presidency: ESDP Programme
On 1 July, Finland assumed the Presidency of the European Union. The reference programme for ESDP is the annual one presented together with Austria in January 2006: 
- improvement of the EU's military capabilities on the basis of the Headline Goal 2010, with a particular focus on the rapid availability of means provided by member states; 
- identification of urgent capabilities (until 2018); 
- full operability of the European Defence Agency; 
- improvement of EU civil-military coordination; 
- continuation of the ongoing ESDP missions with preparation of new commitments in particular in the Balkans (police mission in the Balkans for 2007);
- fight against terrorism, in particular through improvement of data exchange and coordination at strategic and operational level among member states; 
- simplification of EU decision-making procedures; 
- implementation of the European satellite navigation system, Galileo, and the future Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system.

1 July 2006
European Defence Agency - Code of Conduct
On 1 July, the Code of Conduct on defence procurement adopted by the European Defence Agency (EDA) last November entered into force. 
Spain, Hungary and Denmark have not adhered for the moment. 
The Code, voluntary and not legally binding, should contribute to introducing some competition in the European military acquisition market, normally exempt from common market rules through the exception provided by art. 296 TEC. It will cover those contracts which, given their strategic value, are therefore exempt from common market rules, practically establishing systematic information among partners on national invitations to tender worth at least 1 million euros. 
Any decision by member states not to apply the code, that is not to make information available on the Agency website, will have to be justified on the basis of pressing operational urgency or reasons of national security.

31 July 2006 
NATO - Afghanistan
On 31 July, the NATO ISAF mission in Afghanistan took over command of the military operations in the south of the country from Enduring Freedom, the counter terrorism mission of the coalition led by US. 
During the last months, about 8,000 NATO troops have been deployed in the region, in line with the commitment foreseen for the third phase of expansion (South) approved by the North Atlantic Council (NAC) in December 2005. 
The increase brings the total number of ISAF troops to about 18,500, while the last phase of expansion (East) is not foreseen before the end of the year.

July 2006 
ESDP Missions - Darfur (Sudan), Democratic Republic of Congo
On 11 July, ministers adopted a decision extending the EU civil-military support to the African Union (AU) AMIS mission in Sudan until 31 October 2006. 
The outlook is that the AMIS mandate will be transferred to the UN. Although the question of the permission for such a transition of the Sudanese authorities remains unresolved, the work and the full backing to make it operational as of January 2007 is already underway, as confirmed by the International Conference on Darfur held on 18 July in Brussels which involved more than 70 delegations in addition to the organizers’ representatives: EU, AU and UN. 
On 30 July, the “EUFOR RD Congo” mission, the launch of which was formally decided by the Council last June, reached full operability. The EU's autonomous military operation, in support of the UN MONUC mission, aimed at ensuring the security of the first democratic electoral process in 40 years, will last until 30 November and will involve about 2,400 soldiers partly based close to Kinshasa (1,100) and partly outside the Congolese territory ready for rapid intervention.

July/August 2006 
Middle East, Lebanon
The escalation of tension noted in the Middle East since June, between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and in particular between Israel and Hezbollah militias in southern Lebanon, worsened during the summer. 
The capture of two Israeli soldiers and the launch of rockets by militias against Israeli cities provoked a strong reaction in Israel: air raids on military and civil structures throughout Lebanese territory and the Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah's operational area. 
These events got the attention of the international community, from the G8 summit of 15-16 July to the EU Council meetings, calling on the parties to cease hostilities and respect international humanitarian law and urging Israel to lift the air and naval embargo exacerbating an already difficult humanitarian and sanitary situation, which activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. 
The international conference held in Rome on 26 July, and gathering EU member states, Arab states, the UN, Russia, the US and the World Bank worked to find a solution proposing to send an international military force with a UN mandate. 
Afterward, on 11 August the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1701 paving the way for the strengthening of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission. Operating in southern Lebanon since 1978, the number of its troops will be increased from the current 2,000 (under French command) to a maximum of 15,000. 
To the initial mandate of the mission (ensuring the withdraw of Israel and assisting the Lebanese government in re-establishing territorial sovereignty in the concerned area) new tasks have been added: supervision of the ceasing of hostilities, monitoring of respect of borders, assistance to the Lebanese government and army in establishing security and guaranteeing access for humanitarian aid. 
Even though this is not an EU mission, the EU member states’ contribution was coordinated by the extraordinary meeting of the Council held on 25 August, in which UN Secretary General Annan also participated. Several member states offered means and troops up to a total of almost 7,000 men, more than half the 12,000 currently deployed. 
The main commitments have been taken on by Italy and France, with about 2,500 and 2,000 men respectively, who will succeed each other in commanding the new UNIFIL mission - Italy will take over command in February 2007. 
Regarding funds for rebuilding southern Lebanon and for humanitarian emergency, the donors Conference met in Stockholm on 31 August and pledged a total of 734 million euros for short-term needs. The contribution of the European Commission and member states since the beginning of the crisis amounts to about 120 million euros.

July/August 2006 
EU - Countering International Terrorism
One year after the London bombing attacks in July 2005, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, issued a statement reviewing the legislative initiatives adopted by the Commission to counter international terrorism. 
New proposals will come out in the coming months: the creation of a common legal framework imposing a minimum of security duties to be respected by owners of Europe’s critical infrastructures, and an annual financing of about 3 million euros for further projects in this field; a Green Paper on detection and associated technologies. The old as well as the new measures will be useful only if effectively applied by the member states. 
On 7 July, the European Commission agreed to allocate 1.8 million euros for a project aimed at supporting victims of terrorist attacks. 
The attention for countering terrorism increased on 10 August when the British authorities made known that they had discovered and thwarted imminent and simultaneous attacks that were to be carried out with liquid explosives on flights from the UK to the US. On 16 August, on the initiative of the Finnish Presidency, an informal meeting was held in London, bringing together also the 4 incoming Presidencies that will follow the current one (Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and France), the UK Home Affairs Secretary and the Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Frattini. 
The meeting urged action to control the use of websites, the application and review of security measures in airports, to carry out research on explosives - especially liquid - detection, and in general to prevent further attacks to critical infrastructure to be protected on the basis of vulnerability assessments conducted at EU level.

July/August 2006
Non Proliferation: North Korea, Iran
Last June, the High Representative for CFSP Solana, submitted to the Iranian authorities a package of economic and political incentives and sanctions aimed at freezing Tehran's uranium enrichment activities. The offer, which would permit the use of the nuclear energy only for pacific purposes, was made on behalf of the EU-3 (France, Germany, United Kingdom and High Representative for CFSP Solana) and was worked out together with the United States, Russia and China. 
The meeting between Solana and the Iranian negotiator did not have a positive outcome. 
On 12 July, the 6 promoter states meeting in Paris decided to refer the question to the UN Security Council. 
A new resolution of the Security Council (31 July), urged Iran to cease the abovementioned activities by 31 August in a manner verifiable by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in order to avoid the possible application of economic and diplomatic sanctions. 
On the non-proliferation side, on 4 July, North Korea conducted the launch of long-range missiles, possible vectors for weapons of mass destruction. The action was condemned by the international community. 
The EU Presidency and a new resolution of the UN Security Council asked Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks for nuclear disarmament with China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and United States, which have been blocked for months.