The EU is drawing up plans for a 'Euro-Pentagon'

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Tuesday December 17, 2002 13:14

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Alarm at 'EU Pentagon' plan
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 17/12/2002)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The European Union is drawing up plans for a "Euro-Pentagon" in Brussels commanded by a defence chief able to launch military operations anywhere in the world.

The proposals call for an EU defence secretary with responsibility for running operations.

His staff would be able to draw on an autonomous EU command and control nexus and an intelligence agency with satellite capability.

They are to be published today by the defence working group of the Convention on the Future of Europe. They will form the basis of the military section in the EU's draft constitution next June.

The group was chaired by the French commissioner Michel Barnier, who has been accused of playing down contributions from those opposed to a European army.

British objections appear to have been ignored in the final draft, though footnotes allude to intense disagreements among the group's members.

The document says the world has changed so dramatically since September 11, 2001, that national defence is "no longer sufficient".

The plans go far beyond the EU's 60,000-man rapid reaction force, which is to take on its first peacekeeping mission in the Balkans early next year.

The defence secretary - a beefed-up version of the current post of high representative held by Javier Solana of Spain - would report to EU defence ministers but would have powers to take "necessary decisions" in an emergency.

The force would have a broad mandate to "dispel hostility", a term that seems to open the door to much wider warfare than the existing menu of humanitarian tasks.

This military structure would be backed by a European Arms and Strategic Research Agency that could harness the EU's industrial might for future military needs. An EU military academy was also floated as a possibility.

The proposals are causing deep concern to the EU's four non-Nato neutral states - Austria, Sweden, Finland, and Ireland - and were greeted with alarm yesterday by the Tories.

Geoffrey Van Orden, MEP, the Tory defence spokesman in Brussels, said: "If this isn't an EU army then I don't know what it is. Mr Blair should call a halt to this before it is too late."