WRITTEN QUESTION P-2324/97 by Olivier Dupuis (ARE) to the Commission (30 June 1997)

Subject: European corps of civilian and military units

Given the plethora of crisis situations in the world, ranging from Somalia to Rwanda and from the former Yugoslavia to Albania, the European Parliament has, on a number of occasions, emphasized the need for the setting up of a European corps of civilian and military units which could undertake peace-keeping and peace-restoring missions. It did this, for example, in the FASSA report (A4-0021/97) ((OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 181. )) and in Petersberg the TINDEMANS report (A4-0162/97), in which it called on the Commission and Council to carry out a feasibility study into this issue.

What action has the Commission taken on this European Parliament proposal? Has the Commission carried out the feasibility study requested, either on its own or in cooperation with the Council? If so, when does it think it will be in a position to forward the findings of that study to the Members of the European Parliament?

Answer given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (25 July 1997)

The Commission has not studied the feasibility of a European corps of civilian and military units to carry out peacekeeping and peacemaking missions.

Article J.4(2) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides for the Union to request 'the Western European Union (WEU) ... to elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications'.

Two decisions have been taken by the Union on this legal basis: the first, adopted on 27 June 1996, concerns operations to evacuate nationals of Member States in danger in a third country, while the second, of 22 November 1996 concerns the elaboration and implementation of the Joint Action in the Great Lakes region, adopted by the Council earlier that day on the basis of Article J.3 of the TEU.

Article J.7(2) of the draft Amsterdam Treaty adopted by the Intergovernmental Conference amplifies and strengthens the current Article J.4 in a number of ways, stipulating that 'questions referred to in this Article shall include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking'. Article J.7(1), for its part, stipulates that 'the Western European Union (WEU) is an integral part of the development of the Union providing the Union with access to an operational capability notably in the context of paragraph 2'.

The Protocol on the future Article J.7 which will be annexed to the Amsterdam Treaty provides that the 'European Union shall draw up, together with the WEU, arrangements for enhanced cooperation between them, within a year from this Protocol's entry into force' in order to implement fully the provisions of Article J.7(1), second subparagraph, and (3) of the TEU.

The Commission takes the view that the above decisions and provisions, and in particular Article J.7(1), (2) and (3) and the Protocol thereon, enable the Union to maintain the consistency of its external action by giving it the operational capability to carry out humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.