German hopes of a major step towards an EU defence identity at next week's summit met with an unenthusiastic response from ministers yesterday.
Meeting informally under the aegis of the Western European Union (WEU) in Bonn, defence ministers from 21 European NATO and EU member-states heard an appeal from the German minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, to back an ambitious declaration at the summit. But EU neutrals and NATO members such as France and Britain made it clear they believe the Union should not rush down this road yet. Germany, which by coincidence holds both the EU and WEU presidencies at present, had initially wanted the summit to agree in principle to merge the WEU into the Union, but Mr Scharping acknowledged yesterday that "this is not yet on the agenda. There are issues that must be discussed very carefully and which can't be rushed," he said. Only 10 members of the EU are full members of the WEU. Finland, Austria, Sweden and Ireland have observer status - the latter represented by the Irish Ambassador to Belgium and the WEU, Mr Eamon Ryan - as does Denmark, which is also a member of NATO.
Iceland, Norway, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Turkey are also associate members. The organisation has 28 members.
At the meeting neutral Sweden's Defence Minister, Mr Bjorn von Sydow, said Stockholm agreed on a joint approach between the EU and WEU for peace-keeping and crisis management tasks but not on a merger.
"We are definitely opposed to the institutional integration," he said. He said Sweden would voice that opposition at the Cologne summit. The Finnish Defence Minister, Mr Jan-Erik Enestam, also said this week he was confident Bonn would settle for looser ties than a full merger.
And the Turkish Defence Minister, Mr Hitmet Sami Turk, speaking on the sidelines of the talks, reflected the concerns of non-EU partners that they would be sidelined by a merger, but said he had been assured the status of non-EU members would be "respected" in the integration process.
"Nobody has any opposition to the preservation and development of the existing rights" of members not in the EU, he said. The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, acknowledged the differences but added: "I think we will find an institutional arrangement that will satisfy all the different, complex inter-relationships that exist."
Monday: After Kosovo - creating an EU defence identity?
