EU PREPARING FOR PIRACY MISSION, NO PLAN FOR

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 06 BRUSSELS 001745 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/ERA JEFFREY GIAUQUE, NATHANIEL DEAN, EUR/RPM FOR LAURA LUCAS, PETER CHISHOLM, PM/ISO FOR CAPT. JEFF FREDERICK, AF/RSA FOR CHRISTOPHER POMMERER AND MICHAEL BITTRICK E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2018 TAGS: EAID EUN EWWT PHSA PREF PREL XA XO XW ZP SUBJECT: EU PREPARING FOR PIRACY MISSION, NO PLAN FOR CAPTURED PIRATES REF: A. USEU BRUSSELS 1720 ¶B. 1716 ¶C. 1575 ¶D. 1568 ¶E. 1533 ¶F. 1476 ¶G. 1370 ¶H. 1139 Classified By: Ambassador Kristen Silverberg for Reasons 1.4(b) and (d) . ¶1. (C//NF) Summary: The EU expects to launch its first naval operation by mid-December, when it will begin counter-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa. The operation, dubbed Atalanta, will be commanded from an Operational Headquarters at Northwood, UK, with a Force Headquarters afloat. The force should comprise at least three ships at any given time throughout the operation's one-year mandate, with the most likely contributors being France, the UK, Spain, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, probably Sweden, and maybe Italy. A logistics hub and base for maritime patrol aircraft will be housed in Djibouti, probably at the French base. The EU is also establishing pragmatic liaison arrangements with NATO at multiple levels -- a development that USEU recommends we quietly encourage so as not to raise a Turkey-Cyprus roadblock. The thorny legalities of detaining and disposing of captured piracy suspects remain unresolved, although USEU contacts appear open to considering the Suppression of Unlawful Acts convention as a legal mechanism that would obviate the need for new, potentially ad hoc, arrangements. End Summary. Ready to Approve the Mission ¶2. (C) French, UK and EU Council Secretariat contacts tell BRUSSELS 00001745 002 OF 006 us that Operation Atalanta, the EU's counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa, will be ready to kick off by mid-December. With the approval of the Joint Action authorizing the mission by the GAERC on November 10, the mission has the necessary political guidance. Meanwhile, the military concept of operations is being reviewed in Brussels and should be ready for Political and Security Committee approval soon, UK First Secretary Duncan McCombie told PolOff on November 6. McCombie also said that the official force generation conference would be on November 17 and 18, with an informal force generation conference to precede. Greek pol-mil counselor Stavros Kyrimis told PolOff on November 14 that force generation on November 17 would focus on filling out the operational headquarters, while official pledges of ships could be arranged through an exchange of letters. ¶3. (C//NF) Although the EU so far has avoided the Turkey-Cyprus roadblock to NATO-EU cooperation, McCombie (protect) told us that the UK and the French Presidency on November 5 had to steamroll last-minute Cypriot objections to the standard language on information sharing that was included in the Joint Action. Nicosia wanted to substitute language requiring case-by-case approval by all 27 Member States for information exchange with third countries. McCombie warned that, while the UK and France had stopped Cyprus this time -- aided by the fact that the Cypriot proposal was unworkable -- they would not be able to strong-arm another Member State many more times. C2 and Force Structure ¶4. (C//NF) Operational planning is already underway at the mission's Operational Headquarters at Northwood, UK, under British Rear Admiral Philip Jones. In addition, the EU last week agreed to an afloat Force Headquarters (FHQ) which would be led on a rotational basis first by Greece, followed by BRUSSELS 00001745 003 OF 006 Spain, and rounded out by the Netherlands. On November 12, Greek Commodore Antonios Papaioannou was named the first force commander. McCombie said the UK was concerned about Greece taking up FHQ command first, so much so that the British Ambassador in Athens emphasized to the Greek Government the importance of a clean start to the mission. (Comment: McCombie did not provide specific reasons for the UK concerns, but we presume the British are worried about the Greeks raising political flags that might prompt a dispute with the Turks, after so much effort went into finding a workable NATO-EU liaison arrangement.) Didier Lenoir, head of the Operations and Exercises Unit in the Defense Issues Directorate of DG E VIII, Thomas Bertin of the French Permanent Representation, and Stavros Kyrimis of the Greek delegation, confirmed that the FHQ would be afloat and would probably be staffed on a 4-month rotational basis by Greece, Spain, and the Netherlands. ¶5. (C) USEU contacts each offered different portraits of the size of the force, probably because force generation has not officially begun. All contacts confirmed that the contributing Member States would include France, the UK, Germany, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, probably Sweden, and possibly Belgium. On November 13, French counselor for political-military issues Thomas Bertin confirmed that France, the UK, Germany, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium were expected to offer frigates, with Spain adding a tanker and maritime patrol aircraft. France also noted that Italy is considering offering a frigate, and Sweden may offer two corvettes and a support ship. ¶6. (C) However, not all of those countries will provide ships throughout Atalanta's year-long mandate. Bertin offered the most specific description of the force requirements, saying that the mission would require at least three ships at all times: one to accompany World Food Program BRUSSELS 00001745 004 OF 006 ships, one to accompany commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden, and a third for surveillance of the zone, particularly important fishing areas. Bertin said that the mission could have more than three ships operating at any given time, but that would depend on the rotation and force generation. The UK's McCombie said he expected about four "ship years," suggesting that the overall contributions would be the equivalent of four ships for one year. Greece's Kyrimis said he expected four to six ships to be engaged at any one time. Claude-France Arnould, Director of Defense Issues in the Secretariat's DG E VIII on November 5 described a six-ship mission to PDAS Ries. (Comment: Arnould was probably counting the total number of ships rather than the number of ships on station at any given time.) The mission will also include maritime patrol aircraft and a logistics hub in Djibouti. USEU cannot confirm definitively that the logistics hub and aircraft will draw on the French base in Djibouti, but French Navy Captain Jean Hausermann said that would probably be the case, noting that a naval operation would not require a large land-based logistics base. Liaison with NATO ¶7. (S//NF) EU officials say they have already established productive, practical liaison arrangements with NATO at multiple levels. Arnould told PDAS Ries on November 5 that she, the EU Military Committee Chairman, French Gen. Henri Bentegeat, and Deputy SACEUR Gen. McColl had already been discussing the mission, and that McColl recommends keeping communication open at lower levels without raising flags that would elicit a Turkey-Cyprus roadblock. Didier Lenoir, who reports to Arnould, said that the next meeting of Arnould, McColl, and Bentegeat would be on November 14 and that he had traveled to SHAPE on November 5 to lay the groundwork for that meeting. BRUSSELS 00001745 005 OF 006 ¶8. (C) The EU is also establishing liaison channels to NATO at Northwood, where the EU Operational Headquarters will share information through NATO's headquarters, and at the liaison cell in Bahrain. USEU contacts do not envision any further role for Bahrain in the mission, although a UK naval representative told us on November 6 that there is a possibility that the EU will request technical support like intelligence from the U.S. ¶9. (S//NF) Comment: USEU is pleased with the pragmatic EU-NATO liaison arrangements being established at multiple levels. These arrangements will permit the two organizations to cooperate without subjecting that cooperation to the Turkish-Cypriot dispute that often makes other Berlin-Plus provisions unworkable. We should encourage these arrangements without raising flags that would prompt Cyprus and Turkey to intervene. End Comment. Legalities Still A Challenge ¶10. (C) Member State and Council Secretariat contacts admit that the legal question of what to do with suspects captured in the act of piracy is a thorny one. At present, there is no central EU policy on what to do with captured pirates, and each Member State may end up acting along nationally determined lines. Both Arnould and the UK indicated, however, that the EU is exploring the possibility of signing an agreement with a regional state -- probably Kenya -- to permit delivery of suspects for prosecution there. Concerns about human rights make the EU loathe to hand suspects over to other regional states such as Yemen. ¶11. (U) The Joint Action adopted on November 10 allows EU naval forces participating in the operation to transfer detained suspects to the flag Member State or participating third state that took them captive, or alternatively to BRUSSELS 00001745 006 OF 006 deliver them to a third state wishing to exercise its jurisdiction over the detainees. Member States are prohibited from transferring detainees to a third state unless that state has agreed to conditions for the transfer that are consistent with international human rights law. Specifically, the EU wants to guarantee that no detainee is subject "to the death penalty, to torture or to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." ¶11. (C) The UK, Greece, and Arnould were receptive to the U.S.'s presentation of the UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA) as an existing mechanism that would obviate the need for new, potentially ad hoc, arrangements. USEU is following up with the UK, France, Greece, the Secretariat, and other Member States to provide further information on SUA and to encourage the EU to consider assisting regional states that may struggle to cope with an influx of detained pirates. MURRAY .