§ Mr. SoamesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the Government's commitment to the EU military planning cell is in terms of(a) civilian and uniformed personnel and (b) funding. [184903]
§ Mr. HoonBoth the European Union cell at SHAPE and the new civil-military cell in the EU Military Staff will be funded out of the Council Secretariat budget. No decisions on the size or manning of these have yet been taken.
§ Mr. SoamesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects the EU planning cell to stand up; and what its role will be. [184904]
§ Mr. HoonThe European Union is setting up a cell at SHAPE to improve the strategic partnership between the EU and NATO and, in particular, the planning of "Berlin Plus" operations where the EU uses NATO's planning capability.
It is also establishing a civil-military cell within the EU Military Staff, which will improve coherence between the EU's civilian and military responses, develop expertise in managing the civilian-military interface, and undertake advance strategic planning for joint civil-military operations. This will also have the capacity to generate an ad hoc Operations Centre for an operation, in particular where a joint civil-military response is required, where no national headquarters is identified, and if agreed unanimously by EU member states.
The June European Council agreed that these cells should be established by the end of 2004, with the ability to set up an Operations Centre available by 1 January 2006.
§ Mr. SoamesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the military agreements (a) in force and (b) in negotiation between EU members in respect of military structures outside NATO. [184905]
§ Mr. HoonThe following table sets out the main multilateral military structures outside NATO which include European Union members. A number of these also include non-EU countries. In addition, there are many other bilateral military agreements between individual EU member states.
The United Kingdom is a party to military agreements in respect of four of these structures, as listed in the following table. Military agreements between other EU members are a matter for those member states' governments.
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Structure EU participants EAG—European Air Group Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK European Airlift Centre Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK Sealift Co-ordination Centre (Eindhoven) Netherlands, UK European Amphibious Initiative (including the UK/Netherlands Amphibious Force) France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK SHIRBRIG—Stand-by High Readiness Brigade Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. (Observers: Czech Republic, Hungary) SEEBRIG—South-Eastern Europe Brigade Greece, Italy, Slovenia NORDCAPS—Nordic Co-ordinated Arrangement for Military Finland, Sweden, Denmark Peace Support EUROCORPS Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg EUROFOR France, Italy, Portugal, Spain EUROMARFOR France, Italy, Portugal, Spain