June 15, 2000
Excerpt from report by Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard' on 14th June
A proposal to create a 5,000-strong European police force by 2003 will be on the table at the European summit in Feira next Monday. One thousand of these police officers must be deployable within 30 days for international operations, such as Kosovo.
This is what emerges from the draft text of the progress report on the creation of a European defence system, to be approved by the 15 heads of state and government in Feira next week.
The report includes a progress report on the implementation of the decision by the European summit in Helsinki to create a 60,000-strong rapid intervention force by 2003 for crisis operations. Now the EU is adding a 5,000-man police force. The value of this can be seen in Kosovo, where the United Nations is pleading in vain for international police officers to maintain security there.
The progress report was given the green light yesterday by the council of foreign ministers who are preparing for the Feira summit. Only Austria, Portugal and Luxembourg were represented at ministerial level. The others were attending the funeral of President Hafiz al-Asad in Syria.
It is as good as certain that next week the European leaders will decide that they are going to investigate how those member countries that so wish can more easily engage in more far-reaching cooperation than the others in certain areas of policy.
The Amsterdam Treaty makes that possible, but the conditions are rather rigid. The supporters of "enhanced cooperation" - of which the Commission and the Benelux countries are the keenest - assume that it is necessary if progress is to be made in certain areas of policy in a European Union consisting of nearly 30 countries.
Late last year there was quite strong opposition to reopening this debate during the current intergovernmental conference on EU reform. Opponents fear a Europe of "core countries," with the others shut out.
In Luxembourg there already seemed to be a great deal more readiness to discuss the matter. Nearly all the EU partners are agreed in principle that this can be done. Even France and Germany have now come out firmly in support of the idea. Spain, Denmark, and Great Britain are putting serious conditions on this "flexible" Europe, but want to discuss it in the fall during the French presidency...
