FRENCH ESDP INITIATIVES POST-DEAUVILLE DEFENSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001869

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2018
TAGS: PREL MARR MCAP MOPS EUN FR
SUBJECT: FRENCH ESDP INITIATIVES POST-DEAUVILLE DEFENSE
MINISTERIAL

REF: A. USEU TODAY FOR 10-03-2008

B. USNATO 365

C. USEU 1567

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Kathleen Allegrone for reas
ons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) Summary and Comment. On October 1-2, European Union
(EU) defense ministers decided on common directions for
capacity-building initiatives and EU military operations at
an informal ministerial in Deauville, France. As an informal
ministerial, Deauville produced no formal decisions, rather
general consensus on decisions that will later be formalized,
in this case at the November 10 General Affairs-External
Relations Council (GAERC) meeting that will involve both
Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers. The GOF is
currently focused on strengthening European Security and
Defense Policy (ESDP) as one of their EU presidency
priorities, particularly in the area of building
capabilities. The Deauville meeting produced agreement on at
least six concrete initiatives, or "structured capacity
projects," focused on boosting equipment levels and improving
ESDP processes. Col. Philippe Steininger, DAS-equivalent for
EU and NATO at the MOD bureau for Strategic Affairs, provided
the following readout of the decisions taken at Deauville and
French ESDP plans to build on those results including more
frequent Minister of Defense meetings; that said, the updated
European Security Strateg (ESS) will be less robust that
initially envisioned. Comment: Sarkozy has cited progress on
ESDP as a precursor to French reintegration in the NATO
Military Commands. The modest gains achieved at Deauville or
success in meeting piracy challenges will help solidify
support for this decision. End summary and Comment.

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BUILDING ON DEAUVILLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
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Reinforcing Capacities
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2. (C) In addition to specific initiatives, the EU defense
ministers agreed on a "variable geometry" model that allows
any subset of EU member-states to contribute to any given
project once it receives the political blessing of the 27
member-states. Among the first concrete proposals is the
European Air Transport Fleet (EATF) initiative, a long-term
project to create a multinational fleet of Airbus A400Ms.
Steininger said the effort would build on existing common
support efforts for the A400M and include France, Germany,
Belgium, and maybe Spain, but probably not the UK. Reftel A
reports that about 10 countries agreed on combined crew
training, with individual countries leasing out their planes
on a timeshare basis to provide training aircraft, or using
common funding for a multinational fleet of training planes
based on national fleets. Other key aspects of improving
projection capabilities approved at Deauville include
increasing aero-naval interoperability and securing
contributions to the so-called "helicopter trust fund."


3. (C) Cooperation in military space observation was also
agreed to at Deauville. Steininger clarified that the
initiative will include both surveillance of space and
surveillance of Earth from space. On the former, he said
existing French and German systems will be made more
interoperable and send more data to the EU satellite center
in Torrejon, Spain. On observations from space, he said six
European partners will increase the interoperability of
national satellite programs in a cooperative "system of
systems" with the generation of satellites to replace the
French Helios, German SAR-Lupe, Italian COSMO-SkyMed, etc.
This program, called Musis, for Multinational Satellite
Information System, could also add an international ground
system to the network of national systems and would also send
data to Torrejon.


4. (C) In the armaments domain, the defense ministers agreed
to reinforce the role of the European Defense Agency,
including in research and development. The defense ministers
"supported the creation of a true internal defense market" to
encourage European industry to consolidate. Steininger said
the French Presidency seeks to revitalize the European
defense market, in keeping with the December 2007 EU "defense
package," by promoting more competition and removing
regulatory barriers within Europe, including reducing
exceptions to the otherwise strict codes that govern EU
spending. He also said the GOF would like to revisit the
Athena mechanism of common financing, but observed that
financial negotiations are always difficult and the need had
not yet been agreed to among the 27 member-states.


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Deployability: Making "Paper" Deployability a Reality
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5. (C) Following the Deauville meeting, the French EU
Presidency announced that standby European forces will be
made more responsive for deployment in operations, especially
at the battlegroup (1500) level. Steininger elaborated that
while the 60,000-troop Headline Goal will be maintained,
France wants the EU to focus on more concrete, realistic
goals for the smaller, more frequent deployments that are
more likely today. Within the 60,000-troop capability, the
French envision possible simultaneous deployment of: two
operations consisting of 10,000 troops; two rapid response
operations at the battlegroup level; one operation to
evacuate European nationals; one maritime/aerial surveillance
operation; one small civil-military operation; one
humanitarian operation; and 10 small civil operations, the
largest of which would have 3000 personnel. Steininger said
these goals, which echo to an extent the deployment
capabilities set out for France in its Defense White Paper,
had not yet been agreed to at the European level. The
meeting did achieve consensus on the so-called "Erasmus"
exchange program among military academies, modeled on
successful university exchange programs but for young
European officers. Steininger added that the French see a
need to reinforce the EU,s civilian crisis management
capability, which is nominally 15,000 personnel but exists
"on paper" only.


6. (C) The defense ministers also agreed in Deauville to
reinforce cooperation on evacuation of European nationals
from crisis zones. Steininger said the French would like to
create geographic zones of responsibility and improve
cooperation in other aspects of crisis management, including
security sector reform and land demining. In addition,
defense ministers agreed to "consolidate" military activities
in a maritime surveillance network against illicit
trafficking, which Steininger commented was focused on
European waters and clandestine immigration. Networking
existing national maritime surveillance systems under ESDP
will be complicated since the missions fall naturally under
law enforcement and domestic security, not under ESDP.

Review of ESDP Operations: EUFOR, ALTHEA and Piracy
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7. (C) Existing ESDP missions were also a high priority at
the Deauville meeting, with EUFOR in Chad/Central African
Republic and Operation ALTHEA in Bosnia reaching important
decision points. On Bosnia, the ministers agreed that ALTHEA
has fulfilled its initial military objectives. Steininger
advised the French would prefer to end the military
operation, but remain open on how the European presence could
"evolve" towards reinforced civilian capacities or, per the
Deauville statement, a military mission focused on training.
Per ref A, consensus on the future of ALTHEA was not reached
and a decision will be sought at the November GAERC.


8. (C) Regarding EUFOR, Steininger said the GOF continues to
hope that the UN will take over the EUFOR mission, since the
ministers agreed it has been successful in reestablishing
security for refugees, internally displaced persons, and
humanitarian organizations. Defense Minister Morin proposed
to his counterparts in Deauville to travel together to Chad
on November 22.


9. (C) The ministers also agreed to "accelerate" the
planning of a formal naval operation to combat piracy off the
coast of Somalia. Steininger reinforced the need to
formalize EU operations to ensure maximum member-state
participation. He noted that Spain, which has contributed an
airplane to the current EU efforts, has no judicial statutes
for prosecuting pirates. France has the same problem with
the pirates currently in its custody, but can prosecute
nonetheless for the kidnapping of French citizens.

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FURTHER FRENCH ESDP GOALS
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European Security Strategy
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10. (C) The 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS) is being
updated and added to by a small team working under High
Representative Javier Solana. The scope of this effort
represents a compromise between the French Presidency, which
initially desired a comprehensive update reflecting both
emerging threats and expanded EU membership, and other
countries, particularly Germany, who were nervous about
opening a "Pandora's box" by revisiting all aspects of the

PARIS 00001869 003 OF 003


2003 strategy. Steininger noted wryly that a German
Chancellery official who had been heavily involved in
preparing the 2003 document had been influential in this
compromise decision. He clarified that though some fears
centered on redefining Europe's relations with Russia given
the new eastern member-states, they predated the August 2008
Georgia crisis. Steininger said this compromise approach is
going smoothly and that the revised ESS should be presented
for approval at the December European Council meeting. The
new European Security Strategy is intended to create a
framework for future European capacities.

Partnerships
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11. (C) Steininger called partnerships another of France's
ESDP priorities. Reinforcing the need to improve
on-the-ground NATO-EU cooperation, he said French
expectations are low in this area. Neither the French
proposals within NATO in October 2007 nor the July 2008
French-organized Paris workshop on improving NATO-EU
coordination have produced concrete results. Steininger said
the GOF considers progress essentially blocked by Turkey,
with Greece and Cyprus in supporting roles. Nonetheless, the
French Presidency continues to promote the idea of a
high-level informal coordination group between the
organizations. Vis--vis the African Union, the French
Presidency priority is increasing African ability to deal
with African crises.

Next Steps
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12. (C) Steininger reiterated that the decisions reached in
principle at Deauville will be confirmed by the Defense
Ministers at the November 10 GAERC. Follow-on agenda items
will include the status of the ESDP mission in Bosnia and the
capacity issues of space, air transport (support for the
A400M),and aero-naval interoperability, in additional to
ministerial-level discussions on the European Security
Strategy and planning. The GOF supports formalizing a
mechanism for Defense Ministers to meet on their own in the
General Affairs Council format (in other words, similar to a
GAERC for defense),not every month as do the Foreign
Ministers, but on an as-needed basis. Steininger said France
hopes the December European Council meeting will mark
agreement to establish a small planning cell, as France has
reached agreement in principle with the UK and Germany, but
not yet at 27. Finally, the French Presidency hopes the
Council will agree to a declaration on capacities as a
capstone to France's efforts to advance ESDP during its
six-month EU Presidency window.

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COMMENT
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13. (C) The Deauville topics were a subset of overall French
ESDP goals, which also include areas of broad consensus such
as reinforcing global security through non-proliferation,
arms control, counterterrorism, and cyberdefense. Progress
on ESDP has been officially cited by President Sarkozy as a
precursor to French reintegration into the NATO military
commands. Deauville marked one of the key steps for the
six-month Presidency period during which the GOF can actively
advance ESDP. As Steininger said, Defense Minister Morin's
goal was for the informal ministerial to produce concrete
results, which are not always easy to obtain in ESDP. We
judge that though modest in scope, the deliverables of
Deauville are nonetheless significant, and that further
progress in ESDP by the December Council is achievable to
fulfill the self-imposed French requirement for normalization
within NATO. We strongly encourage USNATO and USEU efforts
reflected in reftels to seek ways to complement the
French-led counter-piracy initiatives that will bolster
President Sarkozy,s ability to solidify public support for
normalized relations with NATO. Similarly, success in
meeting piracy challenges will also help solidify public
support for normalized relations with NATO. End comment.

STAPLETON