NATIONAL POLITICS DELAY NEW EU CRISIS MANAGEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 000973

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2019
TAGS: MARR PREL EUN
SUBJECT: NATIONAL POLITICS DELAY NEW EU CRISIS MANAGEMENT
STRUCTURE

BRUSSELS 00000973 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Acting Pol M-C Mary Curtin for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (C//NF) Summary: Competition between France and Germany
for the leadership of the EU's new Crisis Management Planning
Directorate (CMPD) has delayed the long-awaited creation of
the EU's strategic planning structures. The CMPD is to fuse
the EU Council Secretariat's existing crisis management
directorates into one unit consisting of several integrated
crisis management teams. When the need arises, these teams
-- to be composed of civilian and military planners -- will
write and circulate strategic plans for EU crisis management
operations. The CMPD was initially expected to stand up in
May, but EU Member States could not agree on the
directorate's new head, with France and Germany each
promoting a candidate. Once established, the unit will have
to win back de facto responsibility for strategic planning of
civilian management operations from the EU's Civilian
Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC). The new structure
should modestly enhance the efficiency of the EU's strategic
planning process, but it will not address the real gaps in
the EU's broader crisis management capacity: the need for
improved military capabilities and better mechanisms for
civilian force generation and deployment. End Summary.

RESTRUCTURING AND CLEARING THE "DEAD WOOD"


2. (C) In separate conversations on July 7, EU officials
described the planned new Crisis Management Planning
Directorate (CMPD) and disclosed the political conflict that
has delayed its launch. In a meeting with PolOff, Ken Hume,
military operations planner in the EU Council Secretariat's
Directorate for Defense Issues (DGE VIII),described the new
directorate as bringing together the Secretariat's two
existing directorates for strategic crisis management
planning, which are divided between civilian and military
issues. In the new structure, DGE VIII (military issues) and
DGE IX (civilian issues) will be synthesized into one civ-mil
strategic planning and capabilities unit. Elements of the EU
Military Staff will also be absorbed into the CMPD. Hume
said the CMPD will be composed of three to four integrated
civ-mil planning teams, each focused on a different area of
the world. When a crisis arises, these teams will lead the
strategic planning effort and oversee operations at the
strategic level. Hume said the restructuring will also be
accompanied by clearing out the "dead wood" -- planners who
currently occupy posts but are not effective or experienced.


3. (C) During a July 7 meeting with S/CRS Ambassador
Herbst, Matthew Reece, Deputy Director of the EU's Civilian
Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) -- the EU's civilian
crisis management operational headquarters -- also described
the CMPD as a strategic planning unit for both military and
civilian crisis management. Like Hume, he noted that the new
directorate would weed out the weak planners, who will be
replaced by more capable personnel.

NATIONAL POLITICS DELAY IMPLEMENTATION


4. (C) Hume and Reece both acknowledged that the rollout of
the CMPD has been delayed by jockeying over who should lead
the unit. While the EU initially intended to launch the unit
and name the new director in late May 2009, the decision has
been delayed indefinitely. When asked, Reece said the two
candidates are Claude-France Arnould, a French national who
heads DGE VIII, and Germany's PSC Ambassador Clemens Von
Goetze. As Reece put it, in this time of turnover in the EU
leadership, "those who don't please Paris or Berlin bring
risk to themselves."

RIVALRIES TO CONTINUE


5. (C//NF) Even after the new unit is established, Hume
said there would still be internal EU rivalries.
Specifically, he said the CPCC has increasingly taken over
strategic planning for civilian crisis management operations
from DGE IX, and would probably resist when the new CMPD
takes on the strategic planning for civilian missions.
Speaking personally, Hume said that although Reece was one of
his best friends in the EU, the two would be bureaucratic
rivals when the CMPD stands up.


6. (C//NF) Comment: The CMPD, once established, should

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bring greater efficiency to the EU's strategic planning for
civilian and military crisis management operations. Putting
civilian and military operational planners in one
organization will make the EU better prepared to plan for
coordinated civ-mil interventions. The CMPD on its own,
however, will not revolutionize the EU's capacity for crisis
management. That will take increases in the Member States'
military capability, improvements in the EU's system for
civilian force generation and deployment, and streamlined
procurement mechanisms for crisis management. End Comment.

MURRAY
.