Paris, 19 December, 2006 – The WEU Assembly has called for Europe to adopt a series of measures to bolster land forces in operations abroad.
 
A report, submitted on behalf of the Defence Committee by Doug Henderson (United Kingdom, Socialist Group) on Tuesday and adopted unanimously, suggests that more cash should be invested in acquiring and maintaining equipment, the cost of operations should be shared more evenly among member states, and interoperability of equipment should be enhanced. Fifteen different types of armed vehicle were used in Europe today, Mr Henderson said. “Surely we can do better than that!” he said.

The report, entitled “European land forces in external operations” also said steps should be taken to keep up the morale of military personnel and to maintain the support of public opinion. If the public believes operations are counter-productive, “we are in ever more difficulty,” he noted. “Many tasks are ahead of us, and very few of them do not require better funding.”

Mr Henderson stressed the importance of distinguishing between the three phases of military involvement – intervention, stabilisation and normalisation. “If we don’t get the timing right, the local population cannot see the difference between the first and second stages, and then we cannot reach the third,” he said. Afghanistan was a prime example, he said. Stabilisation began at least 12 months ago, whereas efforts to root out the Taliban were still continuing in July.

Commenting on the report, Defence Committee Chairman Robert Walter (United Kingdom, Federated Group) said that a follow-up report on European land forces would be presented to the next Assembly session in June 2007, developing some of the points raised in the current report, especially jobs, troop morale and funding.