Paris, 24 January 2006. "Europe should either content itself with economic integration within the global market or seek to become a political power in the world." These were the words Jean-Pierre Masseret (France, Socialist Group), President of the WEU Assembly, used to open his address to the “13eme rencontres parlementaires”, chaired by French parliamentarians Jean-Michel Boucheron and François Cornut-Gentille, which took place on 23 January 2006 at the National Assembly in Paris. The topic for discussion was “Security in Europe: how far should we integrate our defence policies?”

The power that Europe must become is, according to Mr Masseret, “neither hegemonic nor imperialistic. It is simply a case of a Europe able to hold its own in its own space, and defend its political, economic and democratic interests in tomorrow’s world”.

Mr Masseret and Mr Boucheron, along with Michel Barnier (as a commentator on events) regretted the low level of media coverage and public awareness of ESDP activities. They stressed interparliamentary channels as a useful means of improving coherency and strengthening links with citizens.
 
 

In his speech, in which he listed eight specific points, the President called for an improvement in the effectiveness of current ESDP structures and for ad hoc structures to be made permanent, stating that:

1. It was essential for European Union member states to commit to a mutual defence treaty. He reminded his audience that, in the case of 10 member states, a commitment of this kind already existed in the form of the 1954 modified Brussels Treaty.
2. Although the “European Security Strategy” provided political objectives, it did not go far enough, since it did not discuss the military resources Europe required.
3. With regard to the ESDP decision-making process, he encouraged developing qualified majority voting in order to avoid bottlenecks in decision-making.
4. On civil-military issues, he called for the development of the civil-military cell within the EU Military Staff and for a proper permanent operations centre to be set up.
5. Response times of 10 days for the deployment of forces, as set out under the Headline Goal 2010, required a command structure and a permanent operations HQ, at constant readiness.
6. On intelligence, the sharing of some types of information had been rather disappointing. The President also proposed that the EU should draw on space capabilities, in particular the Torrejón Satellite Centre.
7. Progress should be made in implementing the battlegroups in order to increase potential response times in the event of action being required.
8. Taking a global approach to improving deployability, Mr Masseret proposed setting up a permanent EU movement coordination cell within the EU Military Staff.