Combating Somali Piracy: the EU's Naval Operation Atalanta - European Union Committee Contents


SUMMARY


Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean is a serious and ongoing threat to UK and EU interests. It could spread within the region, which is unstable.

The EU's Operation Atalanta, with its operational headquarters based in Northwood, UK, has made a strong contribution to combating piracy, in particular protecting World Food Programme (WFP) ships and coordinating with other maritime forces in the area. However there are a number of areas that need improvement and require action.

Naval vessels and their crews are very expensive resources in short supply. With more surveillance aircraft the Atalanta fleet could be far more effective and efficient. Similarly, the permanent availability of a tanker would prevent Atalanta vessels from having to return to port on a regular basis solely to refuel.

The WFP's use of small, slow ships makes them especially vulnerable to pirate attacks. As a result they require greater military protection and resources. The Government and the EU should insist that the WFP charter faster, larger and more modern vessels. It is even more efficient for military contingents to be placed on these vessels rather than having warships and their crew shadowing each delivery. It should be a condition of the award of a WFP contract that, when requested, the flag state allow these vessels to carry Atalanta military forces on board.

Military personnel placed on commercial shipping should be given specialised training. We agree with UK policy that private security guards should not be placed on commercial shipping because of the increased risks to crew and ships.

The insurance industry is not taking sufficient responsibility for ensuring that commercial shipping transiting the area complies with readily available, tried and tested procedures to reduce the risk of capture by pirates. At a minimum the industry should impose increased insurance premiums on ship operators who do not comply.

We agree with the increasingly robust action taken against pirates by Atalanta forces. There is a need to change the perceived risk/reward ratio for pirate activity.

We welcome the EU's agreements with Kenya and the Seychelles to prosecute pirates, and the negotiations now taking place with other states in the region. We wait to see the number of successful prosecutions that result.

There will be no solution to the problem of piracy without a solution to the root causes of the conflict on land in Somalia. We support the EU's efforts to deal with Somalia's problems by building up the security sector in line with democratic norms, providing humanitarian assistance and assisting the authorities in Somaliland and Puntland to strengthen their coastguards.

If the piracy problems of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean are not robustly tackled, there will be copy-cat piracy elsewhere on the world's shipping lanes adjacent to failed states or regions where a government's writ fails to reach.

 
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