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

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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

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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

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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.


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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

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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
.