CHUMACHENKO O. A. The formation of a European Security and Defence Policy and the first EU missions in the Western Balkans

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       The Maastricht Treaty on European Union, signed on 7 February 1992, established the second pillar of the EU – the Common Foreign and Security Policy [1]. The Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 introduced substantial amendments to the Maastricht Treaty, reinforcing the second and third pillars of the EU structure [2]. The Potsdam Franco-German Summit, held on December 1, 1998, launched the development of a concept of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Meeting of French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on December 3–4, 1998 in Saint Malo became a real breakthrough for the EU in the area of forming the ESDP’s military dimension. This agreement has significantly accelerated the development of the ESDP in general and its military dimension in particular. On June 3–4, 1999, the Cologne Summit of the European Council paid special attention to the creation of new organizational structures of the ESDP. In December 1999, the European Council summed up the first results. The Helsinki Declaration, adopted on December 11, 1999, focused on creating a concept for the formation of a European Rapid Reaction Forces (ERRF). The Helsinki Headline Goal was to ensure by 2003 the possibility of deploying a European contingent of 50–60 thousand military personnel for 60 days and maintaining them throughout a year [3].

     On June 19–20, 2000, the European Council in Santa Maria da Feira set new challenges for the development of the military component of the ESDP. Most of the EU countries responded with enthusiasm to their tasks and on November 20, 2000, in Brussels during the "Conference on Armed Forces Commitments," declared the size of the military contingents that they were ready to allocate. In the Helsinki Force Catalog the number of personnel, military planes and ships allocated (total 144 positions) was fixed [4].

     EU Member States also paid considerable attention to non-military means of crisis management. In June 2000, the European Council in Santa Maria da Feira set an obligation to provide support to the capacity of 5,000 police and other civilians by 2003. In addition, European Council identified four priority areas for civil action, such as law enforcement, rule of law, civilian administration and civil protection.

     The fulfillment of the EU tasks on development of the ESDP required significant efforts and coordination of the EU member states. On December 7–10, 2000 Nice Summit paid much attention to the ‘Collective Opportunity Objectives’, which envisaged the launch of new programs in the following areas: strategic mobility for the purpose of delivering forces to the field of operations, the creation of headquarters to provide intelligence forces and resources for conducting search and rescue operations under operational conditions, means of defence against missiles ‘Earth – earth’, high-precision types of weapons.

            New emphases in the development of the ESDP were laid out in 2001 during the Swedish presidency of the EU. On June 15–16, 2001, at the Gothenburg European Council summit, the EU member states agreed to maintain joint military exercises of the future CEFR and all the accompanying structures of the EU to coordinate collective action.

      All preparations of the EU for conducting their own security and defence policy took place in parallel with the regular negotiation process with NATO on matters of interest to both organizations.

     In 2001, the EU and NATO began to build the institutional framework for further cooperation in order to form an “integrated approach” to operations using military and civilian means. This process took place at the level of political leadership in the form of strategic dialogue, as well as at the level of formation and deployment of contingents in different regions, in order to prevent unnecessary duplication of effort, transparency and adherence to the principle of independence of both organizations [5].

    On January 24, 2001, NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson and Swedish Prime Minister Hans Joran Persson identified the boundaries of cooperation between organizations by exchanging letters, and agreed on further meetings at the level of foreign ministers and ambassadors.

      On December 16, 2002, “The EU–NATO Declaration on ESDP” was adopted [6]. It confirmed the EU’s guaranteed access to NATO’s planning capabilities for its military operations, and reiterated the following political principles for a strategic partnership: effective mutual consultation; equality and attention to autonomous decision-making in the EU and NATO; observance of the EU member states and NATO interests; observance of the principles of the UN Charter; consistent, transparent and mutual development of requirements for military capabilities common to these two organisations.

      On March 17, 2003, the provisions of the declaration were reinforced by the framework agreement "Berlin Plus", adopted by the EU and NATO. It formed the basis for the interaction of organizations in crisis management. According to this agreement, the European Union has access to NATO’s collective forces and capabilities in conducting its operations. This concerned the management and assistance mechanisms during operational planning, and enabled NATO to support EU-led operations [7]. At the preparatory stage, the EU and NATO signed a ‘Concerted Approach for the Western Balkans’ on July 30, 2003, which identified the key areas of cooperation in the region.

      The first EU military operation was the peacekeeping mission in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The European Union launched the Concordia Peacekeeping Mission (FYROM / Concordia) on March 31, 2003 in order to monitor the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement signed on 12 August 2001 by the Macedonian Government and Albanian political forces on the ceasefire. In accordance with the preliminary agreement with NATO, the EU took over the control of the NATO Allied Harmony operation, which lasted from December 12, 2002. According to the Berlin Plus NATO gave the EU its forces and capabilities. The number of military personnel provided by the EU was 300 people [8, p. 173]. The commander of the operation was deputy commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in Europe.

      On December 12, 2003, the European Council in Brussels adopted the ‘European Security Strategy’ – a program document that has defined the EU’s political development in the field of security and defense for many years. The main goal of the strategy was to determine the European Union’s achievement of a secure peaceful space in Europe.

      On December 15, 2003, the Concordia peacekeeping operation successfully completed. FYROM EU Police Mission Proxima replaced it. 200 police officers were sent to replace the military personnel. Proxima helped Macedonia pass an important segment of the way from the post-crisis state to the pre-accession stage to the European structures [8, p. 187]. Over the next six months, the EU Police Advisory Group (EUPAT) will operate in the country to consolidate its success.

      After completing Concordia, the EU launched the military mission EUFOR Althea on December 2, 2004 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with its headquarters in Sarajevo. It acted in parallel with the EU Police Mission in the BiH (EUPM, 2003–2012). Under the Berlin Plus arrangements, Althea replaced the NATO’s Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR). In reality, this change meant a change of leadership, and 80% of the military remained in place (totally 700 military personnel) [8, p. 211]. The purpose of the operation was to keep the main ethnic groups of the BiH from clashes and to prevent the emergence of prerequisites for aggravation of the situation in some parts of the country.

      The first EU experience in conducting a peacekeeping operation was resumed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on May 17, 2004 when the ‘Headline Goal 2010’ was adopted [9]. Unlike the previous new goal focused on a qualitative indicator of EU military capabilities, on the formation of mobile armed forces capable to respond rapidly to new threats. Instead of creating a previously planned army corps, emphasis was placed on the formation of the ‘fighting groups’ in the number of 1.5 thousand people. EU member states planned to create 10 such groups with the ability to deploy within 10-15 days and conduct independent actions for up to 120 days. It is believed that the creation of ‘fighting groups’ has become a major success in the development of the EU military potential, as they have increased the level of cooperation between the member states of the European Union.

      During the period 1998–2003, the European Union adopted a series of documents aimed to establish and develop military and civilian capabilities of the EU in the framework of ESDP. The process of developing the ESDP was accompanied by close cooperation between the EU and NATO. Under the Berlin Plus arrangements, the EU was able to use NATO’s military capabilities in Europe during its first missions in the Western Balkans. Conducting and successfully completing the first EU military mission Concordia in FYROM in 2003 has become an important stage in the ESDP developing.