EU MILITARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ON ESDP AND EU-NATO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 001804 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2018 TAGS: MARR PREL EUN SUBJECT: EU MILITARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ON ESDP AND EU-NATO RELATIONS REF: USEU-TODAY 11/20/08 Classified By: USEU POL M-C Chris Davis for reasons 1.4 (a) and (d) ¶1. (C/NF) BEGIN SUMMARY: French General Henri Bentegeat met with us on 20 Nov 08, saying there may have been sufficient progress on ESDP during the French EU Presidency to enable President Sarkozy to move France more fully into NATO. Bentegeat highlighted plans to reorganize the EU Council Secretariat to establish a strategic planning directorate, and touched on initiatives in the air, space and maritime domains, and on the plan to increase military exchanges. On NATO-EU relations, Bentegeat said that information exchange was the key challenge that needed to be overcome, also highlighting the need to harmonize defense planning.. General Bentegeat was hopeful that the Berlin Plus formula could help preserve the EU's link to NATO via DSACEUR, noting the importance of Operation Althea in Bosnia in maintaining the viability of this arrangement. END SUMMARY -------------- An EU Strategic Planning Capability in Brussels -------------- ¶2. (C/NF) French General Henri Bentegeat, Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, provided on November 20 an update on developments in the areas EU defense and security policy, and shared his views with USEU DoD Advisor on the present state of NATO-EU relations. Bentegeat said he will be in his 3-year position for another year. Before coming to Brussels, Bentegeat worked closely with former SACEUR General Jones while serving as France's top military commander. ¶3. (C/NF) Asked whether there had been adequate success on ESDP to provide President Sarkozy with the domestic support he needs to bring France back into NATO's military structures, General Bentegeat responded by stressing how difficult it had been for him, as a French officer, to be the military spokesman for 27 member states during the French EU Presidency, adding that he had tried to represent the interests of all the member states. He then described how recent or planned progress in ESDP, if "packaged properly," could sell NATO to the French parliament. He outlined how restructuring the Council General Secretariat to create a strategic-level civil-military planning function in Brussels, a plan that is to be put forward by Solana on 8 December at the GAERC, would create a new Directorate General for ESDP within the Council Secretariat. The plan would merge the Directorates General for Defense Issues and Civilian Crisis Management, with the addition of planners from the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability, the EU Military Staff, and the European Commission. (Note: The number of staff to be taken from the last three entities remains to be determined by EU member states.) This new structure will reflect, in Bentegeat's view, a global approach to enhancing EU defense capabilities, in this case strategic planning. Bentegeat asserted that this approach was a step away from the EU Operational Headquarters (which has been a political lightning rod on both sides of the Atlantic); he termed it the "civilianization of ESDP," due to the preponderance of civilian actors. -------------- Capability initiatives la Franaise -------------- ¶4. (C/NF) On advances under the French presidency in the area of capabilities, General Bentegeat highlighted the "MUSIS" project, which will develop multinational space surveillance capabilities with five contractors now involved. The European Air Transport Fleet, to which six member states have committed, will focus on the A400M and would start with one multinational unit for training. This unit is to pool member state assets and attempt to implement a joint maintenance program, which the general noted would be complicated. Bentegeat admitted that the French-UK helicopter needed more funding and specified that the EU would focus on training aircrews, leaving NATO to focus on helicopter refurbishment. ¶5. (C/NF) On maritime surveillance, he said the Council is actually supporting a Commission initiative, to connect local surveillance capacities of coastal member states. His deputy, French Admiral Bruno Nielly, noted the European Defense Agency initiative to develop maritime UAVs that could be deployed aboard naval vessels. On the Aircraft Carrier Initiative, General Bentegeat said this was aimed at developing interoperability through training, and would be BRUSSELS 00001804 002 OF 003 open to nations without their own aircraft carriers, such as Germany. He said nine countries are participating. -------------- Common military culture through education -------------- ¶6. (C/NF) A military version of the civilian ERASMUS program will open military academies to cadets from other countries on a voluntary basis. This would require harmonizing academic credentials. General Bentegeat noted that member states wanted to protect their exchange programs with the U.S. and Canada. He admitted that, while small countries are quick to take advantage of opportunities to send officer candidates to bigger nations, the reverse is not true. -------------- European Security Strategy: a short update -------------- ¶7. (C/NF) Bentegeat said the European Security Strategy will be updated with the addition of 7 or 8 pages on new challenges like climate change and energy security. Although it has yet to be discussed by member states. Bentegeat thought a short addendum on the military level of ambition for ESDP -- to which Germany, France and the UK have already agreed -- would also be included. The level of ambition for troop strength will remain unchanged at 60,000 troops but they will be apportioned to conduct simultaneously two significant operations of 10,000 soldiers, two Battlegroup (battalion-sized) operations, plus other limited operations, a departure from the present focus on one large mission. General Bentegeat emphasized that this new level of ambition would not affect ESDP structures or the capability development process, with the possible exception of a need for further deployable communication systems. -------------- NATO-EU: Evolving together -------------- ¶8. (C/NF) SHARING INFORMATION: General Bentegeat strongly supports effective NATO-EU cooperation and displayed frustration over efforts to restrict cooperation. He assessed the inability to exchange classified information as the greatest barrier to NATO-EU military-to-military cooperation. His first example was the proposed classified EU computer network: SESAME. Bentegeat disclosed that the majority of EU National Military Representatives agreed that the system should be connected to NATO, and failure to do so would be "dangerous for us." ¶9. (C/NF) HARMONIZING DEFENSE PLANNING: Bentegeat also supported the incoming Czech EU Presidency's desire to harmonize defense planning between NATO and the EU by going beyond coordinating calendars. Ensuring that the NATO Response Force and the EU Battlegroups go down the same path seems also to be a high priority for him. "When the NRF evolves we should evolve Battlegroups in the same way," he said, to limit constraints and to increase opportunities for their use. He stressed that it was "absolutely essential to do both" and that this could be done in the NATO-EU Capability Group. -------------- Keep Berlin Plus to maintain transparency -------------- ¶10. (C/NF) Transparency is vital for NATO-EU relations, according to Bentegeat. He shared his view of how D/SACEUR, a European officer who serves as NATO's strategic coordinator, should be the EU's window on NATO's military activities, including both mil-mil and civ-mil aspects. He said that not only do he and D/SACEUR, UK Lieutenant General McColl, try to speak frequently, but other key EU defense officials such as Claude-France Arnould do as well. ¶11. (C/NF) Bentegeat complained, however, that General McColl is not always available and cannot be cognizant of every aspect of NATO's military activities; therefore, the NATO-EU link needs to be expanded. Bentegeat said he thinks U.S. support for increased transparency between NATO and the EU in general would be useful. ¶12. (C/NF) General Bentegeat offered his view that maintaining the Berlin Plus formula is vital to preserving the EU's link to NATO via D/SACEUR. He said that while Greece did not favor Berlin Plus operations but remained open to the possibility of future Berlin-plus operations, Cyprus BRUSSELS 00001804 003 OF 003 was not. He underlined the importance of the only Berlin Plus mission, Operation ALTHEA in Bosnia, in keeping Berlin Plus active. He posited that, as no decision is likely on the future disposition of the operation until after the closure of the OHR, which might come in March 09, the current status quo can "legally" continue until the second semester of 09 when any EU decision would go into affect. Bentegeat felt that a training force of 200 would probably be sufficient to maintain contact under Berlin Plus. ¶13. (C/NF) Bentegeat opined that Berlin Plus could still be considered by the EU as not off the table for other potential military operations. He disclosed that it was raised but rejected during the deliberations over the anti-piracy mission, since developing the mission could not be delayed to accommodate the additional 2-3 months of internal and external negotiation that would have been required to finalize the Berlin-Plus agreements. SILVERBERG .