Paris, 3 June 2008 – Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French State Secretary for European Affairs, began by welcoming the Assembly’s “long-standing role in developing and spreading a real common security and defence culture among the national parliaments of a great many European countries, thanks to its debates and the quality of its reports”. He said on Tuesday that he was in favour of “revitalising the ESDP with a new political vision”, in particular “one based on the prospects of a strong renewal of our relations with NATO”.

Reminding the Assembly that “developing the ESDP was among the priorities” of the incoming EU French Presidency, the minister felt that “given an increasing number of crises and in the face of shared challenges, today the EU and NATO have to work together and mutually strengthen each other. It is no longer NATO or European defence, it is European defence and NATO” he asserted as he recalled that 21 of the 27 EU member states were also members of the Atlantic Alliance. In reply to a question, he added that this strategic rapprochement was already underway and that “the United States today recognises that it is in their interests for Europe to have an autonomous defence capability”.

Such complementarity could only truly exist on condition that sustained and concerted efforts were made “to revitalise European defence that extend beyond our presidency alone”. Acknowledging that there had been “some progress over the last 10 years”, Mr Jouyet maintained that “European resources are not equal to current and future crises” as “the difficulties encountered with launching the EUFOR operation in Chad” had shown.

The French Presidency had set itself “five main objectives” with a view to enhancing the ESDP. The first of these was to develop an “updated security strategy for the next 10 years” which was “essential” given that “the Union had gone from 15 to 27 members since 2003” and given “the new emerging threats”. Secondly, Europe “has to strengthen its civil and military capabilities” through “new key capability projects, of which the 27 would support the principle even if they were initiated by only a few countries”. Mr Jouyet in particular voiced proposals regarding “a European carrier task force based on British and French aircraft carriers, and a common fleet of A400-M for strategic transport”. France also wanted to reach a political agreement on the “defence package” in order to stimulate the European defence equipment market, in particular through the European Defence Agency.

Raising the new possibility offered by the Lisbon Treaty for “permanent structured cooperation between those states whose military capabilities fulfil higher criteria”, Mr Jouyet said that France would “start the debate on the conditions for its implementation”, but that “in any event these provisions would not be implemented before 2009”. “We want to promote a broad, inclusive approach, taking forward as many Europeans as possible”. “Permanent structured cooperation must not serve to create an ESDP elite. No one must be excluded”, he said.

During the debate that followed, Mr Jouyet acknowledged that the question of the widening gap between European defence budgets and that of the United States would have to be dealt with after the adoption of French plans to revitalise the ESDP which would strengthen the EU’s autonomy.