Paris, 2 December 2002: The WEU Assembly on Monday sought clarification of the goals of the CFSP in particular requiring that the European Union draw up “a general European security policy concept, on the basis of which it will decide its own military strategic concept”.

In a report submitted on behalf of the Political Committee, entitled “The role of Europe in a new world order for peace and security – a contribution to the Convention”, Mr Mark Eyskens (Belgium, Fed.) felt it essential that uncertainties over the European Union’s attitude to collective or indeed common defence should be cleared up. “The countries asked to join the European Union in 2004 should be clear as to whether they are joining a Union that places a duty on its members to defend it”, he declared, hoping that “the mistakes that were made in 1992 over the round of enlargement following the Treaty of Maastricht, when full accession to WEU and its Treaty was not made compulsory for applicant countries” could be avoided.

Referring to the different options for a collective defence and “pending clarification of these issues”, Mr Eyskens felt it would be “preferable to maintain Article V of the modified Brussels Treaty outside the framework of the European Union and ask all new EU and European NATO members to accede to it”.

The Assembly furthermore advocated that if the CFSP was to have “the requisite coherency”, the decision-making process must be changed. It wanted to see “qualified majority voting become the preferred option, other than for decisions with military implications or in the defence field”. In the meantime it hoped that “enhanced cooperation” could be extended to other areas, in particular those covered by the ESDP and supported proposals from France and Germany for turning the ESDP into a security and defence Union.

Finally Mr Eyskens endorsed a proposal from President Jacques Chirac “for Europe to have some kind of Foreign Affairs Minister who would discharge, in respect of the Presidency of the European Council, the functions today carried out by the CFSP High Representative and External Affairs Commissioner”. Advocating in the first instance “closer cooperation between the High Representative and the Commission”, Mr Eyskens felt that without this “single source” of initiative it would continue to be “extremely difficult to formulate a coherent policy offering a convincing choice from among the various instruments the European Union has at its disposal in the event of a crisis”.