THE EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY, 2005, www.seetv-exchanges.com

It’s early morning in a small village in central Bosnia. Dutch EUFOR soldiers- with a Bosnian policeman alongside- are going from house to house to search for hidden weapons. Ten years after the bloody war people still have guns and grenades in their homes, nervous that the conflict may re-ignite.

European Union peacekeepers reassure villagers if they hand in their weapons voluntarily there will be no prosecution.

This amnesty-known as Operation Harvest- last year netted thirty thousand hand grenades, nine thousand small arms and three million rounds of ammunition

ITV General David Leakey
EUFOR Commander :

`What we are principally here to do is to give an absolute guarantee that hostilities won’t resume here and in order to do that we have to demonstrate that we are a credible military force that has a robust operational capability.`

Here in Pale- once the headquarters of Bosnian Serb strongman Radovan Karodzic-, EUFOR troops-this time Italian- are setting up roadblocks. It’s part of a crackdown on smuggling and organised crime networks which are threatening economic progress and protecting former warlords.

When the EU took over peacekeeping duties from NATO at the end of last year their aim was to build confidence among local people.

EUFOR soldiers are living in fifty villages throughout the country. Getting to know the people and also gathering intelligence –eyes and ears on the ground-as the search continues for indictedwar criminals.

ITVMajor General David Leakey
EUFOR Commander

`I think the situation in Bosnia is now such that I would characterise our mission as more one of reassurance to the people of Bosnia because they still fear that if the international community, particularly the military presence, left Bosnia then they would feel exposed and fearful of people with maybe unfinished business, maybe political hotheads.`

The 7000 strong mission in Bosnia is by far the most ambitious EU military deployment to date.

A sign of the EU’s commitment to the security of the country. The police mission already at work here is further evidence of that commitment. Its aim: tohelpthe Bosnian policeforcemeet international standards.

It’s perhaps fitting that Europe is deploying its new military capabilitieshere. It was in the Balkans, after all, in the 1990s that the EU learned many lessons during the break up of the former Yugoslavia.

An American led NATO intervention finally ended the conflict. But Europe knew that in future it must be able to deal with crises on its own doorstep.

`The European Union is a group of 25 countries with a population altogether double the population of the US, 4 times population of Japan, we have to be an actor in international affairs. We are not to construct an army to go to war, we want to have forces which can be together from different countries in order to maintain peace or create peace where peace has been broken.`

In 1999- a summit in Helsinki- marked the birth of Europe’s Security and Defence Policy. EU leaders pledged to build up a European crisis management capacity of up to 60,000 soldiers able to deal with 21^st century dangers. A military structure was established in Brussels including an EU Military Staff with representatives from every European country:

ITV Lieutenant General Jean Paul Perruche
Chief of European Military Staff

`When you think of the balance of the Cold War it was terrifying the attacks which could destroy the world hundreds of times over. Today we don’t face the same sort of threats- the dangers are smaller but more probable, that’s to say there are more attempts on security-paradoxically- which can happen in the world today than in the old world.`

The crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the first test forthe EU's peacekeeping operations without NATO involvement.

In June 2003, the United Nations asked Europe to intervene. It was to be the first EU military mission outside of Europe-manned mainly by the French but under an EU flag.

The successful Congo mission showed how the EU can play its own role without duplicating the efforts of NATO.

From that came an ambitious plan to create 13 rapid reaction battle groups of up to 1500 soldiers which can be sent to stabilise trouble spots or protect humanitarian operations.

The aim is for swift deployment- within just five days:

ITV Geoff Hoon
British Defence Minister

`We simply cannot afford to sit back and say we’re going to debate this for several weeks or months before we deploy force. Really, underlying the approach of the battlegroups is a recognitionthat the kind of modern crisis have to be resolved quickly in order to prevent them getting out of hand and in order to prevent this becoming a still worse problem.`

`These systems exist and it would be hugely expensive for the EU to set up parallel systems so, if you like, we sort of subcontract from NATO and use their systems.
NATO has a very sophisticated intelligence architecture which we couldn’t set up and replicate for an individual EU operation so NATO releases intelligence information to the EU.`

“The judicial system of today is better than before but it’s still not completely independent.“


`What can a new government do in such a ruined country in such a short time? They’ve done a lot already but there’s a lot more to be done.`

But also to demonstrate that the EU is now successfully building up military muscle in conjunction with its civilian crisis management. And to demonstrate that the European Union has come of age as a global security player.