EU signs key defence pact

Franco-German push follows failed attempts

BRUSSELS, Nov 13, (RTRS): France and Germany edged towards achieving a 70-year-old ambition to integrate European defences on Monday, signing a pact with 21 other EU governments to fund, develop and deploy armed forces after Britain’s decision to quit the bloc.

First proposed in the 1950s and long resisted by Britain, European defence planning, operations and weapons development now stands its best chance in years as London steps aside and the United States pushes Europe to pay more for its security.

Foreign and defence ministers gathered at a signing ceremony in Brussels to represent 23 EU governments joining the pact, paving the way for EU leaders to sign it in December.

Those governments will for the first time legally bind themselves into joint projects as well as pledging to increase defence spending and contribute to rapid deployments.

“Today we are taking a historic step,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters. “We are agreeing on the future cooperation on security and defence issues ... it’s really a milestone in European development,” he said.

The pact includes all EU governments except Britain, which is leaving the bloc, Denmark, which has opted out of defence matters, Ireland, Portugal and Malta. Traditionally neutral Austria was a late addition to the pact.

Paris originally wanted a vanguard of EU countries to bring money and assets to French-led military missions and projects, while Berlin has sought to be more inclusive, which could reduce effectiveness.

Its backers say that if successful, the formal club of 23 members will give the European Union a more coherent role in tackling international crises and end the kind of shortcomings seen in Libya in 2011, when European allies relied on the United States for air power and munitions.

Unlike past attempts, the US-led

pendent homeland.”

The event was organized by groups that trace their roots to radical nationalist preWorld War II anti-Semitic groups. Some 60,000 people took part, including families with children and older people. But there NATO alliance backs the project, aiming to benefit from stronger militaries.

The club will be backed by a 5-billion-euro defence fund for buying weapons, a special fund to finance operations and money from the EU’s common budget for defence research.

Members will also be required to submit national plans and be subject to a review system identifying weak spots in European armies with the goal of plugging those gaps together.

Many governments say Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 was a turning point, after years of defence spending cuts that left Europe without vital capabilities.

“This is a commitment for countries to do better together,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. “It comes at a time of significant tension,” he said, referring indirectly to Russia’s rising military reach and Islamic militants who have attacked European cities.

Integration

Despite an Anglo-French-led EU defence integration effort in 1998, Britain blocked formal collaboration on military matters, wary of the creation of an EU army.

Defence integration was revived by France and Germany, with support from Italy and Spain, in a show of unity after Britons voted to leave the EU in June 2016.

The EU had struggled in military and humanitarian missions in the Balkans, Libya and in Africa over the past 20 years and were caught off guard by Russia’s Crimea annexation.

France, Germany and 21 other EU governments signed the defence pact on Monday they hope marks a new era of greater European military integration after Britain’s decision to quit the bloc.

Below is a list of dates in European defence cooperation:

1949 — The United States, Canada and European countries set up the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a US-led military alliance.

1950 — The European Defence

were also young men carrying banners with messages including “White Europe of brotherly nations.”

Some carried the Celtic Cross, a white supremacist symbol. (AP) Community is proposed as a European alternative to NATO to incorporate West Germany and create a European army, a joint budget and shared arms.

1954 — The French parliament rejects the European Army plan. Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Britain form the Western European Union, a common defence group with a shared air force and joint command.

1993 — The EU’s Maastricht Treaty redefines European integration and introduces a Common Foreign and Security Policy as one of its goals, allowing European governments to take joint action in foreign policy.

1998 — Britain and France agree to common defence in the Saint-Malo Declaration, and London pledges to play a central role in the security and defence policy of the European Union.

2003 — The European Union launches its first independent military mission outside of Europe, Operation Artemis, with United Nations backing, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2004 — The European Defence Agency is formed to help EU governments develop their military capabilities.

2007 — Rapid-reaction forces of about 1,500 soldiers, called EU Battlegroups, are formed under control of the Council of the European Union. However, they are never used.

2009 — The EU’s Lisbon Treaty strengthens the Common Foreign and Security Policy, creating an EU foreign policy chief.

2011 — France and Britain lead a campaign to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi but cannot impose no-fly zone without US aircraft, munitions.

2017 — More than 20 EU governments sign a defence pact to integrate military planning, weapons development and operations that will rely on a 5 billion-euro ($5.83 billion) defence fund.

Georgia PM reshuffles cabinet:

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili on Monday announced a cabinet reshuffle and merger of several ministries in a bid to reduce red tape and the cost of running the government.

“Time has come to change government structures in order to form a more effective state apparatus and reduce bureaucracy and administrative expenses,” Kvirikashvili told a news conference.

The total number of ministries will be reduced from 18 to 14, he added.

Finance Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili will be appointed economy minister, replacing Giorgi Gakharia, who will become interior minister. Meanwhile the current head of the Georgian Railway state company, Mamuka Bakhtadze will become finance minister, the premier said.

The change will require the entire cabinet to step down and face a fresh vote of confidence in the parliament, which is currently dominated by Kvirikashvili’s Georgian Dream party.

Kvirikashvili has long been under fire from the opposition over inflated bureaucracy and wasteful government spending.

“The proposed change makes no sense as there is no reduction in administrative expenditures in the recently adopted state budget,” the leader of the opposition European Georgia party, Giga Bokeria, told AFP. (AFP)