The Cologne European Council in June of this year stated its conviction that the Council should have the ability to take decisions on the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks defined in the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Petersberg Tasks. The Cologne conclusions underlined the importance of UN principles in this connection.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs contributed actively to discussions on this issue at a number of meetings of the EU General Affairs Council and underlined on a number of occasions, most recently at the General Affairs Council of 15 November, that crisis management is a broad spectrum including civilian as well as military dimensions. There is a need for effective and early EU approaches to conflict prevention and early warning, using non-military tools available. Ireland therefore welcomes and supports the Finnish Presidency's emphasis on non-military crisis management which is being pursued in parallel with the work on the Petersberg Tasks of military crisis management.
At the meeting on 15 November, the Minister for Foreign Affairs emphasised to partners and to Javier Solana, the High Representative for the CFSP, the importance of bringing EU influence to bear at the earliest possible stage of a potential crisis and the positive role which Javier Solana could play in elaboration and implementation of the EU's conflict prevention diplomacy.
In the context of the Finnish Presidency's work on non-military crisis management, Ireland has actively contributed to an inventory of resources and capabilities within the EU which the Presidency has prepared in relation to non-military crisis management, including conflict prevention, covering such areas as UN and OSCE civil policing, humanitarian assistance and electoral and human rights monitoring. The Presidency has proposed an action plan in regard to non-military crisis management which incorporates a number of practical proposals intended to develop a rapid reaction capability in this field. A non-bureaucratic co-ordination mechanism has been proposed by the Presidency to maintain a database of relevant resources and, depending on the EU's role, to co-ordinate responses to particular crises. The EU's contribution will be in harmony with, and in support of, UN and OSCE efforts. Ireland supports this proposed action plan and we look forward to its submission to the Helsinki European Council.