MILITARY SUPPORT TO EU DISASTER RESPONSE:
IDENTIFICATION AND COORDINATION OF AVAILABLE ASSETS AND CAPABILITIES
Letter from Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Minister
for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Chairman
Please find enclosed for your information a
copy of "Military Support to EU Disaster Response: Identification
and co-ordination of available assets and capabilities (not printed).
The Presidency of the Council intends to pass the paper to the
General Affairs and External Relations Council on 13 November
where it will be noted.
The document provides a framework aimed at improving
the planning and coordination of military assets in support of
EU disaster relief activities. The UK has strongly advocated identifying
practical improvement to the EU's crisis response procedures following
the Tsunami of 2004. During the UK Presidency of the EU, the Hampton
Court Informal Meeting considered how the EU could co-ordinate
better its disaster response efforts and tasked the High Representative
for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, with taking
forward this work. His initial proposals focused on the need to
improve arrangements for the co-ordination of relief efforts.
This resulted in the report entitled "A General Framework
for the use of European Security and Defence Policy Transportation
Assets and Co-ordination Tools in Support of EU Disaster Response"
which was noted by the European Council on 15 May 2006 and about
which I wrote to the Committee on 28 June 2006.
The attached document builds on and is complementary
to the General Framework paper. It identifies a number of Member
States' military assets that might usefully support an EU disaster
response effort. These include strategic and tactical transport
(the subject of the General Framework paper mentioned above),
medical units, logistics, chemical, biological, radiological and
nuclear (CBRN) capacities, engineering capabilities etc. The use
of any such assets would follow international guidelines, notably
the Oslo Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets
in Disaster Relief as developed by the UN. One of the key principles
is that military assets are to be used only in support of civilian
efforts and when civilian resources are overstretched or inadequate.
The paper sets out that: assets are only to
be offered on a voluntary basis; the proposed co-ordination mechanisms
utilise existing structures; the initiative only addresses EU
co-ordination for military assets for outside the EU; and Member
States maintain political oversight of the Council Secretariat's
co-ordinating activity. As such it is fully in line with UK objectives
to improve the EU's disaster response capacity. Once noted by
the Council, Member States will look to debate the detailed co-ordination
modalities which the paper calls for.
9 November 2006
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