EU seeks to sharpen military response

European Union defence ministers open talks today aiming to halve the time it takes to send elite battlegroups to international troublespots.

EU officials want to secure backing from ministers to ensure the 1,500-strong rapid response units which the EU is setting up to snuff out potential crises can be ready to deploy within five days of the bloc deciding to launch a mission.

The previous target was 10 days.

The EU agreed in November to set up 13 such battlegroups by 2007 as a key component of the bloc’s drive to build up an effective military wing. The first such unit, led by Britain, is already primed for EU missions.

The ministers will also look at how to better co-ordinate the EU’s military response to natural disasters in the light of the Asian tsunami disaster. EU officials were impressed by the rapid ability of US military units to deploy to areas around the Indian Ocean hit by the waves.

Ministers will have a preliminary discussion on how Europe can more rapidly mobilise military resources to support civilian aid efforts in disaster areas.

New EU nations in eastern Europe are expected to press the bloc to consider a request from the Georgian government for the EU to help monitor Georgia’s northern border with Russia.

Opposition from Moscow forced the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to end its six-year monitoring mission on the border. The Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are leading calls for the EU to take over the mission, but other EU members are reluctant – fearing that could antagonise Moscow and further inflame tensions in the Caucasus.

Officials said the EU would likely send two or three observers to Georgia around the end of this month to establish a presence in the country. They did not rule out sending a larger mission.

However, European diplomats expressed hope the Georgian and Russian governments could agree themselves on measures to reduce tensions on the border, perhaps at a summit meeting in May.

Russia claimed the around 100 OSCE observers failed to stop Chechen rebels operating along the border, and refused to renew the mission’s mandate.