German priorities in the area of European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)During its EU Council Presidency in the first six months of 2007 Germany is keen to further strengthen and expand the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Its main priorities will be as follows:
In the EU's neighbourhood the German Presidency will seek particularly to stabilize the countries of the Western Balkans. Once negotiations on the status of Kosovo have ended, the EU will support the implementation of the agreed arrangements in a variety of ways, including the launch of its biggest ever civilian ESDP mission, which will take over from UNMIK the responsibility for justice and police affairs in Kosovo.
The aim is to further develop and strengthen the EU's civilian and military instruments in the field of crisis prevention and management inter alia by taking forward the Headline Goals process (Civilian Headline Goal 2008 and military Headline Goal 2010).
Since the creation of a rapid response capability is a key objective of this process, it should be accorded special priority. Already on 1 January 2007 there will be high readiness European force packages (battlegroups) available that can be deployed in crisis areas at short notice. At the same time the EU Operations Centre will start work and upgrade the planning and command capabilities of EU missions.
Germany will seek to foster efficient and mutually reinforcing cooperation between the EU and NATO. The aim is to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two organizations by intensifying their political dialogue and cooperating in the area of operational and capabilities development.
In the interest of effective multilateralism Germany will also seek to strengthen cooperation on crisis management between the EU and the United Nations.
The United States is an important partner for the EU in the field of crisis management. It is planned to intensify and expand cooperation between the two partners in the sphere of civilian crisis management.
Civilian-military coordination: Given the increasingly complex nature of conflicts and post-conflict situations, it is vital to strengthen civilian-military coordination as regards the planning and conduct of ESDP missions. The future development of the ESDP should take into account the lessons learned from the over a dozen missions conducted to date since 2003. In this respect the EU's first genuinely multinational autonomous military ESDP operation EUFOR RD Congo in the second half of 2006 deserves to be closely studied.
