I propose to take Question Nos. 23, 60 and 84 together.
The question of European security and defence policy is the subject of continuing discussion within the EU on the basis of the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam. The focus of these EU discussions is the Petersberg Tasks, and not mutual defence commitments.
The Helsinki European Council agreed on a voluntary target for establishing capabilities for the Petersberg Tasks. This target, known as a headline goal, which the member states aim to meet by the year 2003, is to be able to deploy fifty to sixty thousand personnel within sixty days and to be able to sustain this deployment for one year. This would equate roughly to a mission of a scale comparable to that of KFOR in Kosovo.
What Helsinki agreed upon was a capabilities target. 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, with participation as appropriate by Defence Ministers, was mandated at Helsinki to take forward the elaboration of this target and to develop a method of consultation through which this target could be met, and progress reviewed. Member states will also use existing defence planning procedures which, in the case of Ireland and the other neutral and non-allied EU member states, would include the planning and review process of the Partnership for Peace.