EU defence ministers draw lessons from Georgia crisis

Defence ministers of the 27-member bloc are meeting today (1 October) in the French resort town of Deauville, the same day as the launch of the EU monitoring mission in Georgia (EUMM).

The meeting is expected to focus on building a European fleet of helicopters and transport planes as the deployment of the EU mission in Georgia highlighted a logistics deficit. 

EU peacekeeping missions such as the one currently deployed in Chad have had to rely on external contributions, with Russia recently agreeing to provide helicopters. EU countries now wish to avoid such dependence and are seeking to boost their logistic capabilities. 

The French EU Presidency said the aim of the informal meeting was to identify which countries were prepared to provide support for future missions. This would include helicopters and transport planes, spatial observation systems and various research and technology projects, including drones (aircraft without pilots). 

The ministers will also debate “the Europe of defence and the citizens” and hold initial talks on a joint training project for officers, inspired by the ERASMUS student exchange programme. 

Despite the difficulties, the EU Mission in Georgia, consisting of some 300 observers, was launched on time according to an EU-brokered peace plan (EURACTIV 15/09/08). Hansjörg Haber, a German diplomat with extensive experience of both Russia and peacekeeping, was appointed head of the EUMM. Before their first patrol, Heber reportedly instructed monitors to be confident and friendly. 

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who attended the launch of EUMM, said the EU expected Russia to respect its commitments under the plan and to pull its troops out by 10 October. 

EUMM only has a mandate to patrol the regions adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia proper, not the separatist regions themselves. The EU hopes that their mandate could be extended at a later stage following a new round of talks with Russia in Geneva in the second half of October. 

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