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DECLARATION
ON STRENGTHENING EUROPEAN
COOPERATION IN SECURITY
AND DEFENCE

LE TOUQUET, 4 FEBRUARY 2003

France and the UK stood together to face the security challenges Europe confronted throughout the 20th century. Today Europe must address new security challenges. France and the UK are determined to strengthen their co-operation, working with their partners, to ensure Europe is equipped to deal with them effectively.

Sharing the conviction that the EU should play its full role in the world, our two countries proposed at the Saint Malo Summit in 1998 the development of a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in order to respond to the challenges of effective crisis management.

We welcome the rapid progress in the development of this policy. The European Union now has the capacity to take decisions and to act in crisis management, including institutions, civilian and military assets, which will enable it to conduct operations with or without recourse to NATO assets. The UK and France welcome the determination of Member States to continue to improve their military capabilities and welcome the agreement to give the EU access to the planning, command and military capabilities of the Alliance, as part of a genuine strategic partnership in crisis management. We will work to conclude the full set of NATO/EU agreements by 1 March.

Our two countries now wish to take European Defence to a new stage in three areas which correspond to today's challenges: the EU's role in crisis management; the solidarity of its Member States in the face of the threats which affect their common security; and the effective strengthening of their military capabilities.

We proposed today initiatives to modernise and develop Europe's security and defence capability:

• The first EU military crisis management operations in the Balkans;
• A new approach to our common security interests;
• Ambitious proposals to develop military capabilities across the EU; and
• A new era in co-operation between the UK and France on aircraft carriers.

We emphasise the closeness of our views on the defence issues being dealt with by the Convention on the Future of Europe, and our intention to work together further.

1) France and the UK agree this is the time for the European Union to take on new responsibilities on the ground for crisis management and they commit themselves to making a success of these endeavours.

We agree that the European Union should begin its peacekeeping activities in the Balkans, where Europe speaks with a single voice, where it already plays a crucial political and financial role and where its interests and values

are clearly at stake. We welcome the first ESDP operation, which has begun its work in the former Yugoslavia, with the deployment to Bosnia of a civilian mission, including police officers from all 15 EU nations, to train the local police forces.

Our two countries actively support the work under way to prepare the European Union to launch its first military operation in March, in the former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia.

We welcome the European Union's intention to undertake a military operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina in early 2004, working with the international community and with NATO in particular to take over the stabilisation role from the Alliance. We see this as supporting the efforts of Lord Ashdown, as High Representative and EU Special Representative, to pursue the EU's agenda in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to complement the EU's efforts to promote the development of that country.

These operations will build on the close relationship that the EU and NATO have developed in the Balkans, taking it to a new level and contributing to a renewed and balanced transatlantic partnership.

France and the UK will present to the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on 24 February joint proposals to launch work in the coming weeks for a take-over by the EU of the stabilisation mission in Bosnia, on the basis of transparency and co-operation with NATO.

France and the United Kingdom also agree that the potential scope of ESDP should match the world-wide ambition of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy and should be able to support effectively the EU's wider external policy objectives to promote democracy, human rights, good governance and reform.

In this context, we recall the commitment we made at the Saint Malo Summit to combine our efforts to promote peace and stability in Africa. We will therefore propose to our Partners that the EU should examine how it can contribute to conflict prevention and peacekeeping in Africa, including through EU autonomous operations, in close co-operation with the United Nations.

2) France and the UK want to promote the principle of solidarity and mutual assistance between the member states of the European Union in the face of the threats which confront our common security.

We reaffirm today the commitment made in 1995 that we cannot imagine a situation in which the vital interests of one of our two countries - France and the UK - could be threatened without the vital interests of the other also being threatened.

Our two countries want to adapt this commitment to the new strategic context.

Faced with risks of all kinds, particularly from terrorism, France and the UK commit themselves as from today to mobilise all their available assets in order to provide help and assistance to the other country. We invite our Partners in the European Union to join us in this commitment.

We support the proposal to include in the new Treaty a solidarity clause, in order to cope effectively with the threats we face together, making use of all the instruments and structures of the European Union, both civilian and military.

Our commitments and co-operation in this field will remain consistent with our commitments in NATO, which remains the basis of the collective defence of its members.

3) France and the UK agree that developing the EU's ability to act, in the face of new threats and the requirements of crisis management, means we must intensify efforts to improve the military capabilities of EU Member States.

This will also be of direct benefit to the Atlantic Alliance, as envisaged at Saint Malo.

France and the UK invite their Partners to join them in these efforts.

(a) Together we propose that the European Union should set new capability objectives, having assessed the Helsinki Headline Goal, which is due to be achieved by the end of this year. In order to conduct several operations simultaneously and to improve its rapid reaction capacity, the Union should set new objectives, both quantitative (including relevant measures of defence expenditure) and qualitative (preparedness, military effectiveness, deployability, interoperability and sustainability of forces).

(b) To support this, an inter-governmental defence capabilities development and acquisition agency could be established in the EU. The intention would be to ensure that the capabilities required for current and future ESDP missions are defined accurately through the Capability Development Mechanism and introduced into service as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. The objective of the agency would therefore be to promote a comprehensive approach to capability development across all EU nations.

To this end, the agency would have the following roles:-

• The identification of the qualitative and quantitative objectives set out above, and evaluation of capabilities against them;
• efficient procurement;
• co-ordination of defence research and technology;
• harmonisation of military requirements;
• promotion of multinational solutions to fill identified capability gaps;
• management of co-operative programmes on the basis of the development and progressive enlargement of OCCAR;
• strengthening of an internationally competitive defence industrial and technological base, drawing on procedures identified in the Letter of Intent Framework Agreement and through the provision of advice on the regulation of the armaments sector, e.g. adaptation of the Community Framework.

(c) The UK and France regard developing the capacity for rapid reaction as a European priority. Progress here will enable the EU to meet its own objectives and to strengthen the European contribution to the establishment of a NATO Response Force and to ensure compatibility between the two.

In order to meet the requirements of immediate reaction forces, our two countries are convinced of the need to improve further European capabilities in planning and deploying forces at short notice, including initial deployment of land, sea and air forces within 5-10 days. We have therefore agreed to step up co-operation between our national planning and operations staff in order to enhance their interoperability to prepare for contingencies where they may be called to act together at very short notice.

(d) France and the United Kingdom emphasise that air-naval capabilities are a key element in power projection. Our two countries, who already have substantial capabilities in this area, have decided to procure new aircraft carriers and to improve the availability and effectiveness of our carrier groups.

In this context France and the United Kingdom wish to develop the interoperability of their aircraft carrier groups, pursuing all areas of co-operation, in particular harmonising activity cycles and training. The objective will be to have one aircraft carrier permanently available.

France and the United Kingdom will also seek to develop industrial co-operation on the basis of their aircraft carrier procurement programmes. The UK decision on its national programme will open up new areas of co-operation.

(e) More generally, on the basis of the Letter of Intent agreed by our two Navies, we will continue to develop our bilateral naval co-operation in particular to optimise the conditions for training of personnel and operational deployments.

FEVRIER 2003