§ Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ What level of co-ordination there will be between the European Union planning cell and NATO in the forthcoming European Union peacekeeping deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina; and which of the two will take the lead. [HL3357]
§ Lord Bach:The proposed EU stabilisation mission to Bosnia will be conducted under the "Berlin Plus" arrangements through which the EU has assured access to NATO planning. The operational commander will be the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), who will report as an EU commander to the EU's Political and Security Committee. The operational headquarters will be NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) at Mons in Belgium, acting on behalf of the EU. The EU has a small planning cell embedded at SHAPE to assist DSACEUR and to improve co-ordination between the EU and NATO; it also has staff at the NATO regional HQ in Naples. This EU element in Naples will be in the chain of command between DSACEUR and the EU force commander in Bosnia.
Separately, the EU decided in December to set up a civil/military strategic planning cell within the EU military staff in Brussels. The civil/military cell will improve co-operation between the EU's civilian and military responses, and conduct early warning, situation assessment and strategic planning. The cell will not itself undertake operational planning and will have no direct involvement in EU military operations in Bosnia.