Paris, 20 June 2006 – the WEU Assembly, on Tuesday, approved an urgent increase in the ESDP budget to respond, amongst other things, to the development and extension of civilian crisis-management missions foreseen in the European Union’s Civilian Headline Goal 2008.

Maria Damanaki (Greece, Socialist Group), submitting a report on “Civilian aspects of the ESDP – reply to the annual report of the Council” on behalf of the Defence Committee, welcomed the “well-documented successes” of civilian crisis-management missions conducted in recent years throughout the world. She referred to the missions carried out under the aegis of the European Union in the Balkans (in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), in Iraq, in the Congo, Darfur, Indonesia, Georgia and Palestine and the most important area of progress in 2005 – the setting up of “civilian response teams” (CRTs), formed of specialised experts capable of deploying within very short timeframes.

These missions, which Mrs Damanaki felt were increasingly “more complex and demanding”, showed that in the future, civilian crisis-management capabilities would inevitably have to be developed and enlarged to meet the European Union Civilian Headline Goal 2008, with its target of increasing the effectiveness of intervention in priority areas defined by the European Council (police, rule of law, civil administration and civil protection). In the light of these challenges, the ESDP was “significantly short of funds”, and although, as she pointed out, “the increase in its budget from € 47.5 million in 2003 to € 102 million in 2006 is to be welcomed, it is not enough”. Her report confirms that “It is indeed urgently necessary to increase the ESDP budget”.

The Assembly also regretted the lack of “parliamentary scrutiny” over the civilian aspects of the ESDP, noting that effort was needed “to boost the involvement and input of the EU national parliaments in this sphere”. The report concluded that in the field of crisis management, security and civilian aspects were gaining in importance over military aspects and the need for input from national parliamentarians and parliamentary committees was becoming correspondingly greater.