CIVILIAN CAPABILITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN
Letter from Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP,
Minister for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Chairman
In your letter of 19 December 2005[53]
you requested that the Civilian Capability Improvement Plan, approved
by the Council in December, be deposited for scrutiny. I am enclosing
a copy of the plan, which forms an integral part of the Civilian
Headline Goal 2008 process, as explained in the introduction to
the Plan (not printed).
The Plan follows on from completion last September
by all Member States of a Capabilities Questionnaire which highlighted
capabilities available for EU civilian crisis management, and
where gaps lie. The Civilian Capability Improvement Plan sets
out a roadmap for tackling shortfalls and taking forward the Headline
Goal process during 2006, including further work on best practice
in raising personnel for missions, and training. It also sets
out steps for improving mission support which includes procurement,
security and finance. It highlights ongoing work on Civilian Response
Teams and rapidly deployable police elements, and it has at annex
timelines and milestones for taking all this work forward.
The Government strongly supports work on the
Civilian Headline Goal which is fundamental to ensuring the EU
is able to play a full and constructive international role and
has the resources it needs to do so effectively. The UK has played
an active part in the process, including by sending experts to
Headline Goal planning workshops, and we intend to continue to
participate to the full.
John Reid has written to you separately with
a summary of the Lessons Identified from the Battlegroups Initial
Operational Capability paper, which you also requested. It has
not yet been possible to submit the Battlegroup roadmap because,
while the Presidency report stated that the Battlegroup roadmap
was due to be updated at the beginning of 2006, work is still
in progress. It remains unclear when the roadmap will be completed.
10 February 2006
53 Correspondence with Ministers, 45th Report of Session
2005-06, HL Paper 243, p 280. Back
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