ANTI-PIRACY: UK MISSION TO EU VIEWS ON THE STATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 001370 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/04/2018 TAGS: ESDP MCAP PREL PTER FR UK EUN SUBJECT: ANTI-PIRACY: UK MISSION TO EU VIEWS ON THE STATE OF PLAY Classified By: Classified by USEU POLMINCOUNS Christopher Davis, for re asons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. SUMMARY: (C/NF) The UK is deliberately delaying further formal EU consideration of an anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia according to the UK's Deputy Military Representative to the EU Military Committee. Air Commodore Bob Tizard (protect) told USEU on 3 September that the UK had asked in the Military Committee (MC) for more specific information regarding costs, coordination, and command & control be provided before the MC gives its military advice on the Military Strategic Options (MSO) under consideration or indeed on additional MSOs. An EU Fact-Finding Mission will go to the region in the next two weeks and will seek discussions with US and US-led activities in the area. The British are perplexed at the French drive to establish an autonomous ESDP naval operation in this instance as their behavior is counter to their recent rhetoric in the French White Book on Defense and their EU Presidency pronouncements. END SUMMARY ¶2. (C/NF) Air Commodore Bob Tizard, RAF, Deputy UK MilRep to the EU (please protect),in a phone conversation in the late afternoon of 3 Sep 08 (after the EU Military Committee meeting),told USEU Defense Advisor that the UK was successful in tabling a Supplemental Paper in the debate on an ESDP mission to conduct anti-piracy operations of the coast of Somalia. The Supplemental Paper requires the EU Military Staff (EUMS) and the Council General Secretariat (CGS) to develop additional Military Strategic Options (MSO) for further debate in the Political and Security Committee (PSC). This action effectively moves any consideration by the PSC of an ESDP mission to October. Tizard said the current MSO did not contain any analysis on costs, on coordination with external actors (e.g. CTF-150),or on command and control arrangements; failings he attributed to the heavy hand of Claude-France Arnould, the French director of the CGS's Defense Aspects of ESDP office. ¶3. (C/NF) The way ahead for the EU, according to Tizard, will involve a Fact-Finding Mission going to Djibouti and Bahrain in the next two weeks where they hope to meet with US and CTF-150 officials. The EUMS is to have a response to the Supplemental Paper with draft military advice by 29 Sep 08 so that it can be sent forward to the PSC for consideration of a Joint Action and an Initiating Military Directive (IMD) in October. The UK hopes this delayed process will give more time for the EU to review the state of play in the area given that CTF-150's intervention and national contributions (to include a Malaysian announcement of the dispatching of one warship and one support vessel to the area) have altered the conditions upon which the French initially justified an EU force for the mission (justification which he said started last March). In addition, the UK hopes that during the lull concerted British and US efforts in Paris will remove the French block in NATO, which will then provide even more rationale for abandoning an autonomous EU effort given the impending deployment to the region by a Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG). Basically, should the EU see that the WFP ships are protected and perhaps, that the WFP is able to use ever larger ships in its operations due to the increased security provided by other actors, any support for an autonomous operation will wither. ¶4. (C/NF) The UK is perplexed by the French position. According to Tizard, the Elyse, the French MoD, General Bentegat, the French Chairman of the EU Military Committee, and Tizard's EU French counterpart, have all told the UK the French are not/not interested in taking on this additional task. General Bentegat pointedly said that French can't afford it. Nevertheless, he said, the French PSC rep BRUSSELS 00001370 002 OF 002 Christine Rogier continues to push hard for the French proposal for an autonomous ESDP mission, and the French delegation at NATO continues to block a tasking to NATO Military Authorities. The French, he said, also told the UK that they had pushed for passage of UNSCR 1816 to set the scene for an autonomous ESDP operation. In Tizard's seemingly well-informed opinion, there are ambitious people in Paris who want to see this pre-Georgia crisis goal of the French presidency through to the end regardless as the French have shown no overt interest in shelving or reducing this initiative until after the crisis period has passed. It seems to Tizard that the French are behaving as if this initiative is "almost their final act" as EU president. The UK and Air Commodore Tizard personally, are particularly perplexed by the French approach given the pronouncements in the French White Book on Defense and FM Kouchner's speech at the NATO-EU seminar in Paris exhorting everyone to complementarity and cooperation between NATO and the EU. ¶5. (C/NF) Although the Spanish, Germans, Greeks, Dutch and Italians also support the French initiative, Tizard pointed out that no one has stepped up to take on the command and control responsibilities for running and ESDP operation as a framework nation. Without a framework nation with significant maritime capabilities to shore up any shortfalls in the mission, Tizard doesn't see how an autonomous ESDP operation could go forward. Any Operation Commander working only out of the EU Ops Center would not have recourse to other assets and therefore little flexibility in executing the operation. The UK would, according to Tizard, envision a small EU coordination cell co-located with other C2 operations working in the area (e.g. CTF-150's) but doesn't believe the French would accept an EU cell in a NATO structure. Tizard's bottom line on the internal EU debate on Command & Control options is that failure here to find a workable solution could kill the whole initiative. ¶6. (C/NF) He believes the Spaniard's only concern is their fishing fleet, which, in his view, is a national not EU issue and which, in any case, may be protected by the ships already in or en route. The Italians share the same costs concerns as the UK. Tizard noted that the UK is already the largest bilateral donor to Somalia in the EU and has, therefore, credibility when it says that Georgia is a higher priority for the EU's focus at this moment. SILVERBERG .