DECISION

Ladies and Gentlemen, China has 2.2 million people in their military. The
largest Armed Forces in the World. That is after they have reduced their forces
by 1.7 million lately. And they are planning on further reducing them. The US
manage 1.5 million troops and they are a global actor with hundreds of
thousands deployed abroad, military bases everywhere and a huge military
related industry which they have to help sell their products.

Europe has 2.1 million men and women at arms.

Almost as many as the Chinese with less than one third of their population and
almost a 50% more than the US with a fraction of their global projection. Food
for thought. As long as we are not united, as long as we do not develop
common capabilities, we are doomed to being inefficient and, therefore, to be
regarded as such. A burden to our societies.

Why can’t we have a single European Military?

The weakest link of the Union is the Decision Making process. Not that we are
not improving, the problem is we are not doing it throughout the full range of
possible decisions. And Foreign and Security Policy is one of those in which
countries most fear losing their grip on the final word.

Why the tendency to speak of Security instead of Defense? It is only natural

that an Organization which is not itself a military one tends to view things in a
different light which includes more than the use of the military might. The term
Security involves many more actors than the Military and Police forces. The
financial crisis in which we are currently immersed (in Spain, at least) is as
much of a threat to Security as uncontrolled migration from Africa or drug
trafficking from South America or the depletion of fisheries or the menaces in
chokes points for maritime traffic as the Straits of Ormuz.
And any of them are a far more real and present danger than any Armed Force
of a potential foe today.

That is why our military has to face situations in which our traditional assets are
powerless and our traditionally solo role has evolved towards a more
cooperative one. The trend is towards comprehensive solutions to complex
problems. We cannot afford to falsely close crisis as was the case most times
during the 20th Century. Post-colonial Africa and Asia have caused most of the
uproar in recent times precisely because of the colonial power to properly deal
with the problems of decolonization a few decades ago. That is something we
cannot afford any more.

But those very same colonial interests which led to that situation back then are
at the root of the current problem. Each European Power is still a hostage of
those same interests from the past. Different interests which are, sometimes,
contradictory among them and make it really difficult to reach a consensus in
the European Council.

Let us recap what we saw before. The European Council is a Summit of the
Heads of State or Government of all Member States. They basically set the
agenda for the rest of the Institutions to develop. These Institutions, namely the
Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, share the
responsibility of dealing with the day by day issues. The Court of Justice makes
sure that those decisions are subject to law.

-
 CO
Toolsford
Let us now focus on the Foreign and Security Policy of the Union. Let us see
which are the tools they have created to make it possible and let us see which
are the structures being developed for such purpose.

Theactors
We will go a little bit more into the detail with the military structures involved in
the process, a lean EUMS comprised of only 200 personnel. We will see the
types of mission they can carry out and how decisions are taken at all levels.
We will go from the European Council’s decision to get involved in a crisis to the
Force Commander of a Battalion in Lebanon. We shall then review the options

Perm anen
the EU has to set a Headquarters, review the current most prominent threats
and see which are the Missions which are taking place currently .

One step further down, we will see the assets available for that policy and the
good and bad things that have happened so far. We will try to see into the

T
future and guess what lies ahead before we call it a day and you are free to
enjoy the weather.

CrisisM
T
L
 TOOLS FO
The Union has developed over time a series of mechanisms which allow it to
function in spite of the different interests at stake we talked about before. The
“Constructive Abstention” allows a decision to be passed even as up to a third
of the votes are not affirmative. As long as nobody opposes, the proposal is

“Constructive
accepted.

Qualified Majority Vote, not applicable to Defense or Military matters, allows for
a decision to be adopted without consensus. This usually refers to the
development of already agreed to policies.

Council without block

The “Solidarity Clause” and the “Mutual Defense Clause” were introduced as a
preliminary step toward Common Defense which could not be agreed upon. The
first refers to the help provided by all countries when one is subject to a terrorist

members of the Coun

attack or a natural or man-made disaster. The second deals with “armed
aggression by a third party”. All UE Member States are due to help the attacked
one with all the means at their disposal. Still, that does not mean that they have

than one third of the

to do so under the aegis of the EU Institutions. Their commitments with NATO
have to be taken on account.

Two forms of Cooperation were also instituted. “Permanent Structured

Cooperation” implicitly admits a two-speed European development. Whenever a
group of Nations decide to cooperate in a closer fashion, they are permitted to

QMV (Qualifie
do so. Other Nations can join the initiative as they feel prepared for it or meet
the criteria established for it. “Enhanced Cooperation” permits a group of, at
least, a third of the Member States to execute a mission as long as the rest do
not oppose it. This can only be done as a last resort and when the Union as a
whole could not achieve the same within a reasonable timeframe.

Solidarity Clau
These measures have been taken so that we can act as one while not being
one and preserving the individualities within. Nonetheless, the Treaty provides
provisions which might eventually lead to a Common Defense.

That will be the day when we can cut on personnel expenses and begin dealing
with acquiring capabilities. But that will be the subject of tomorrow lecture by
LtCol. Otón.

CSDP S
EDA HR
While the final structure of the EU is not yet clear, this could be a good enough
representation of what it is intended. Be warned that this is a draft currently
under consideration and all this could change. Do not quote me saying anything
of the following.

Shown in pink are the decision bodies of the EU. Green boxes represent
permanent structures for Foreign and Security Policy. Please note that several
of those boxes have moved from the places they used to be to form a coherent
set at the service of the High Representative.

Situation Policy Uni

The major body preparing Council decisions is the PSC along with its advisory
tools, the EUMC, formed by the CHODs, as well as the Satellite Center and the

Centre
Institute of Strategic Studies.

Decisions are taken here, in the pink lower part of the body. Remember that. Of
course, they only reflect what the European Council has chosen as policy.

To your left, the ones who are going to implement those decisions are shown in
green. All together might form the future European External Action Service.
Lady Ashton has to draft the proposal by the end of April this year but this could
very well be the final outcome.

In white, bellow the green structure, are the OHQs, the Operational

CPCC CMPD
Headquarters. Further down we can find the Force Headquarters. Both are non-
permanent structures which are adopted ad-hoc for an specific operation. EUMS

9 HEADs
OF
MILITARY MI
 CS
Plenty of interaction takes place between green and pink. What happens in

EDA HR
practise is the PSC discusses a crisis and asks a CSDP structure to draft, for
example an option paper that we will discussed by MS in PSC and once a
consensus is reached a Council decision is adopted…and CSDP structures
then need to make sure it is implemented.

CSD
P
Situation
Centre
Coming back to this comprehensive slide, but now looking at the right side,

EDA HR
permanent EU bodies, working under the HR responsibility and also according
to MS tasks (from the pink bodies representing EU MS).

What you need to keep in mind is the permanent interaction between the pol
bodies representing MS and the CSDP structures that are drafting,
implementing, advising and also proposing initiatives.

CPCC
Situation CMPD P
Concretely the PSC discusses a crisis and asks a CSDP structure to draft, for
example an option paper that we will discussed by MS in PSC and once a
consensus is reached a Council decision is adopted…and CSDP structures
need to make sure it is implemented.

PERMAN
AND MILITA
Let us see, one by one, the main bodies affected here.

The PSC meets at the ambassadorial level.

• The Pol it ic al and S

The EU Military Committee is made up with the Chiefs of Staff of the Member
States. Currently is chaired by a Swedish Admiral.

The EU Military Staff does not depend upong the EUMC as we have seen
although it relates to it on a working basis. Its current leader is General Leaky,

meets at the ambassador

from the Royal Brithish Army.

The CPCC, Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability is part of the Council

• The Eur
EU. Its mainopean Unio
functions ar
Secretariat, it is the permanent structure responsible for an autonomous
operational conduct of civilian CSDP operations. Under the political control and
strategic direction of the Political and Security Committee and the overall

helping to define policie

authority of the High Representative, the CPCC ensures the effective planning

is the highest military bo

and conduct of civilian ESDP crisis management operations, as well as the
proper implementation of all mission-related tasks.

(CFSP)
• The including
Eur opean the CSDP
Unio
Chiefs of Defence of the
exercises
their its
permanentpolitical cont
military
composed of military and
advice
• The C and
ivil
bythe Member recommendat
ian States.
Pl anni
In parallel with the EUM
which is part of
Aspects of Crisis Man the
The EUMS itself has an structure very similar to any National Staff Corps. Only
the different flags representing the nationality of its members make it different.
That and the liaisons it has with NATO, the UN, SHAPE, the EUMC
Commander and the EUMCWG Commander.

T
The EU is, obviously, not a military institution. As we said before, less than 200
personnel in the midst of the thousands of civilians represent the military at the
EUMS. Nonetheless, their contribution is critical to the whole.

26,700
 MILITARY IL
Separation Of Stabil
Let us see the different scenarios that the EU contemplates as of today. They
differ in name and nature from those NATO foresees. The first one, Separation
of Parties by Force implies calling upon article VII of the Chart of the United

Parties by Force Recon

Nations. The military play the most important function here. This is the “so-
called” Peacemaking mission.

Stabilisation, Reconstruction and Military Assistance to Third Countries. That is

Peacekeeping. This is a softer approach in which are participation is still
paramount. and M
Conflict Prevention comes next. Article VI of the UN Charter is called upon here.

NEO Operations have been performed several times as yet. Cou

In the aftermath of disaster, Assistance to Humanitarian Operations take place.

SOPF
We in the military offer but support to other actors.
S
CRISIS
- Tasks of
MA
- Peace
combat forces
COMISSION - Electi
in crisis
moni
So, whenever a crisis arises, the political elements of the chain of command
begin implementing decisions which are, in turn converted into order by the

management
Strategic Level and passed to the Operational HQ, whichever it is, that will
name a Force Commander who, in turn, will create his HQ on the spot to
accomplish the mission.

Does it sound complicated?

CRISI
Well, it is complicated. If we only take the military part, we still have four
Command Levels. Starting with the EU Military Committee and Military Staff
who advice the Political Level and constitute the Political-Strategic Level we will
go down to the Military Strategic Level where the Operational Commander,
based in Europe, receives Political-Strategic guidance to complete the mission.
EUMC P
He will then suggest the appointment of a Force Commander who will install his
HQ in the Theatre of Operations and deploy his/her forces which will execute
the Tactical Level.
EUMC/
Special Forces Units, and in some respect aviation Units, tend to be flexible
enough to be used at either stage. In fact, their capabilities are best used the
higher the level at which they perform.

STRATEGIC M
Ops. Com
OHQ

•P
Military Force Com
As already mentioned , the EUMS conducts military strategic planning at the
political strategic level. The “products” prepared by the EUMS are the Crisis
Management Concept (in close cooperation with CMPD, which is in the lead),
Military Strategic Options and the Initiating Military Directive.

The subsequent operational planning is conducted by the OHQ and comprises

the Concept of Operation, Statement of Requirement, Operational Plan and
Rules of Engagement. OF course, the EUMS supports the OHQ as required
and later on monitors the conduct of the Operation.

EU PLANNING A

Crisis
Indicators
If we want to go further down into the detail, there are four different types of
Plans. Generic Planning applies to any circumstance. Contingency Planning is
done for unforeseen circumstances we believe could happen. Advance
Planning covers likely possibilities. The difference between Generic and
Contingency Planning is that the first is done even prior to a crisis being
detected while the second is born as a consequence of the emergence of a
crisis situation. All of them are done by a Core Planning Team at the EUMS
whose duty is to detect those emergencies, to be ready for them and to
constitute the core of a future Staff.

Once the EU begins to consider acting, the Core Planning Group is Enhanced
with extra assets and real Planning commences. Crisis Response Planning is
no longer generic but based on real data. A complex process takes place at this

Generic Planning
stage prior to the decision to launch the Operation.

C
 STRAT
Op
Crisis
The EUMS contributes to the development of the Crisis Management Concept
(CMC) within the Council General Secretariat (EUMC is kept informed regularly
on EUMS inputs) and prepares the military advice on the CMC.

Manag -
EUMC agrees the military advice on the CMC and forwards it to the PSC.

The PSC evaluates the CMC together with the military advice (and other advice,

ment
if appropriate) and forwards it together with its opinion to the Council, which
then agrees the CMC.

The PSC then requests the EUMC to issue the Military Strategic Options
Directive (MSOD) to the EUMS and may give additional guidance to the EUMC.

Concept
The EUMC agrees the MSOD (which was prepared by the EUMS) and issues it
to the EUMS who then develops and prioritises Military Strategic Options
(MSOs).

The EUMC forwards the MSOs together with its evaluation and military advice
to the PSC.

The PSC evaluates the MSOs (and other Strategic Options, e.g. Police) and
recommends an option to be selected by the Council.

The PSC may then issue further guidance to the EUMC. The EUMC tasks the

Military
EUMS to prepare the Initiating Military Directive (IMD) to the Operation
Commander (OpCdr). The EUMC agrees the IMD and submits it to the PSC for
approval. After PSC approval the EUMC authorises the IMD to be issued to the
OpCdr.

Strategic
Initiated by the IMD, Operational Military Planning starts with the development
of the Concept of Operations (CONOPS).

Options
 EU
Our next problem is that the EU does NOT have a military structure of its own.
Guidance at the Political Strategic Level is always done in Brussels at the
Council and PSC but the Operational HQ have to be established somewhere on
and ad-hoc, case by case, scenario.

We can either resort to using SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers

Europe) using the Berlin+ agreements which permit the EU to use NATO assets
under certain circumstances or try an autonomous way. This can be
accomplished either by using one of the National HQs put at the disposal of the
EU by individual Member States augmented with personnel from other HQs or
using one of the HQs of the forces of the EU, i.e. the Eurocorps.

COUNCIL/PSC
The enemy – we already mentioned it – is not the traditional one in most cases.
We are dealing with a variety of threats which range from Terrorism to Climate
Change and include Proliferation of WMD, Regional Conflicts, State Failures,
Organized Crime and Energy Security.

In most instances, threats will be multi-dimensional.

MILITAR
Although over 20 operations have taken place since ESDP was established,
and some of them are ongoing ones,

ALTHEA, BOSN
02 Dec 04, 27 T
Contributing
Nations, 2200
Persons
 CIVILIA
Most of them have been of civilian – or mostly civilian – nature. That is Europe.
The military tool that the EU gave itself to be prepared for Rapid Reaction very
much to the image of NATO’s NRFs, is the Battlegroup. 1500 personnel strong
with a core of a Land Unit Battalion size plus Air and Naval Support whenever
needed, it has to be able to deploy in 5 to 10 days to a distance within 6000 km
from Europe and operate automously for one month. When supplied, it has to
be operational for up to four months.

It either goes in the modality of a Framework Nation providing most of the

assets or as a Multinational effort.

•1
EAG
EU Member• AS
Two Battlegroups are active at any given moment. That way, next Battlegroups
to be formed are the current multinational and another one from the UK and the
Netherlands, while for the second part of the year there is another multinational

•D
with Italy as the leading nation and a Spanish one in the second semester of
next year.

The EU has identified several Achievements during these last few years
including the creation of the Eurocorps and Battlegroups, the establishment of
the Headline Goals, both civilian and military, and the creation of the European
Defense Agency and the contracting body of OCCAR.

Somehow, most significant shortcomings come from the capabilities point of

view. Strategic Lift, a Command and Control permanent structure and state of
the art technology are the most prominent ones.

ACHIEVEME

- EUROCORP
Some food for thought I think would be worth discussing.

2.1Mil
That is all from me. Thank you for your kind attention and enjoy the rest of the
week.