Vol. 519 No. 3
79 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Defence the planning taking place in his Department in preparation for the EU's force generation conference in December 2000 to determine the level of forces and other resources and funding that Ireland will provide to the EU Rapid Reaction Force. [13653/00]
82 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Defence if a voluntary target has been established for Irish Defence Force participation in the Petersberg Tasks and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13720/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 82 together.
As the House will be aware, the Helsinki European Council in December 1999 agreed on a voluntary target for establishing capabilities for Petersberg Tasks. This target, known as a "Headline Goal", which member states aim to meet by the year 2003, involves the ability to deploy 50,000 to 60,000 personnel within 60 days and to sustain that deployment for one year. This would roughly equate to a mission of a scale comparable to that of KFOR in Kosovo.
What Helsinki agreed upon was a capabilities target and as the Helsinki European Council conclusions make clear, this does not imply the creation of a European army. Nor does it alter the fact that participation in the Petersberg tasks under the Treaty of Amsterdam is on a voluntary basis and is a matter for sovereign decision in each and every case.
The General Affairs Council at the meeting of 20 March 2000, which I attended together with my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, considered the way forward for elaborating the headline and capability goals set at Helsinki.
The General Affairs Council, with participation as appropriate by Defence Ministers of the 15 member states of the EU, was tasked at Helsinki to progress the elaboration of this target and to develop a method of consultation through which the target could be met and maintained and progress reviewed.
The General Affairs Council identified the process for further elaborating the headline and capability goals in the perspective of a capabilities pledging conference to be convened by the end of 2000.
