Paris, 4 June 2009 – On Thursday the Assembly recommended “rapid reform” of the ATHENA mechanism for the funding of EU-led military crisis-management operations in order to secure a financial participation on the part of all states involved in the decision to launch such operations.

Presenting a report on European Union military operations on behalf of the Defence Committee, Andrea Rigoni (Italy, Liberal Group) lamented the fact that the ATHENA mechanism “only covered about a quarter” of the costs of a mission and that the rest had to be borne by the contributing states. The ATHENA mechanism, which to date has been used for three EU military operations: EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina, EUFOR RD Congo and EUFOR Tchad/RCA, was established because Article 28(3) of the Treaty on European Union does not allow operations having military or defence implications to be financed from the Community budget.

Speaking of operation EUFOR Tchad/RCA, whose main mission was to ensure the security and protection of civilians and in which 10 000 troops from 20 countries took part, Mr Rigoni recalled that ATHENA had only provided some 120 million euros while total costs were estimated at almost half a billion euros. A delegation of the Assembly’s Defence Committee had been on a fact-finding mission to Chad to observe operation EUFOR Tchad/RCA last January.

In his report, Mr Rigoni described both the EUFOR Tchad/RCA mission – taken over by the United Nations (MINURCAT) last March – and the ongoing EUFOR Althea operation as an overall success. In the light of these experiences, the Assembly nevertheless underscored the urgent need “to review the principles, structures and mechanisms for operational planning, force generation and the conduct of operations”. According to the Assembly, the EU must take the necessary measures to ensure that it “acquires a genuinely permanent and responsive operational planning and command capability”.
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The Assembly also wishes to ensure “the national parliaments are consulted before any decision to launch a military crisis-management operation and kept regularly informed of progress”.