I propose to take Questions Nos. 43, 49, 51, 65, 111 and 112 together.
I welcome this opportunity to update the House on discussions on European security and defence policy. On 5 and 6 April, I chaired an informal meeting in Brussels of Defence Ministers of EU member states and accession states. A number of such informal meetings have been held in recent years. The meetings have been a useful forum for informal discussions in the context of the ongoing development of European security and defence policy. The April meeting provided us with an opportunity to review and discuss the major issues in the ESDP mandate of the Irish Presidency. As the meeting was informal, it was not a decision-making forum and no formal conclusions were drawn.
On 17 May I will chair a meeting of Defence Ministers in the framework of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, GAERC, at which formal decisions regarding the issues discussed at the informal meeting will be taken. The first item on the agenda was capabilities development. As the House will be aware, the Irish Presidency has been mandated to take forward work on the further development of European military capabilities to carry out Petersberg Tasks operations. In particular, we were tasked to develop a European capabilities action plan, roadmap and capability improvement chart. The purpose of the roadmap and chart is to facilitate Defence Ministers in guiding the process of capability development to best effect. Ministers reviewed progress to date and supported our approach to developing the roadmap and capability improvement chart. We then turned our attention to the second agenda item, the headline goal 2010. We had a useful exchange of views on the draft headline goal 2010 document as prepared by the EU Council secretariat. The views expressed at the meeting have been useful in guiding ongoing work.
The first day's session concluded with an exchange of views on the EU military rapid response paper as presented by Secretary General and High Representative, Javier Solana. The paper recommends that work on rapid response should be focused on four areas: rapid reaction capability, including qualitative and quantitative criteria; decision-making and planning; relations with the UN; and relations with NATO. The paper refers to the need for rapid response capabilities which should be clearly identifiable in the form of coherent rapid reaction battle groups. There was general support for the battle group concept and Ministers considered the way ahead with a view to achieving concrete results as soon as possible in the field of capabilities available and deployable at very high readiness, including battle groups, in support of the UN. Work on the battle groups concept is ongoing and the aim is to agree a concept by the end of June 2004. An initial battle group capability is envisaged in 2005 and a more extensive capability in 2007. This concluded the first day's meeting.
When the meeting resumed on 6 April, the first matter for our consideration was the proposed European defence agency. The overall aim of the agency is to support the development of the Union's crisis management capabilities. Our debate was informed by an update by the head of the agency establishment team. Ministers voiced continued support for the work of the team with a view to adoption, by June 2004, of the necessary Council decision for the creation of the agency.
As Deputies may recall, the European Council held in Brussels in December 2003 confirmed the EU's readiness for an ESDP follow-on mission to the UN mandated NATO-led stabilisation force in Bosnia Herzegovina. This was discussed as the final agenda item with particular reference to lessons learned from previous operations. The meeting ended with a working lunch at which discussion on the follow-on mission to SFOR continued in the context of EU-NATO co-operation.
Discussion on terrorism, the other theme for the working lunch, focused on the ESDP aspects of the recently approved European Council declaration. Ministers generally agreed that this issue is primarily for Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in the first instance.
I again remind the House that as the meeting was informal and not a decision-making forum, no formal conclusions were drawn. I will be chairing a meeting of Defence Ministers on 17 May in the framework of the GAERC which will be a formal meeting at which decisions in relation to ESDP will be taken. I look forward to briefing the House on the outcome of that meeting in due course.