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The Presidency was mandated by the European
Council in Cologne to continue the work on all aspects of security including
the enhancement and better coordination of the Union's and the Member States'
non-military crisis response tools. Developments i.a. in Kosovo have for
their part underlined the importance of this task. To this end, a thorough
discussion has been carried out within the Council instances.
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Work listing all available resources
of the Member States and the Union has been initiated and has led to inventories
of the tools available to the Union and to Member States, which are contained
respectively in Annex 1 (for the Union) and II (for the Member States).
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The inventories which have been drawn
up clearly show that Member States, the Union, or both have accumulated
considerable experience or have considerable resources in a number of areas
such as civilian police, humanitarian assistance, administrative and legal
rehabilitation, search and rescue, electoral and human rights monitoring,
etc. This inventory should be pursued further. Regular updating will be
necessary to better identify lacunae as well as strongpoints.
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In order to be able to respond more
rapidly and more effectively to emerging crisis situations, the Union needs
to strengthen the responsiveness and efficiency of its resources and tools,
as well as their synergy.
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It is therefore appropriate to draw
up an Action Plan which would show the way ahead and indicate the steps
the Union has to undertake to develop a rapid reaction capability in the
field of crisis management using non-military instruments.
ACTION PLAN
A. The Union should aim at:
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strengthening the synergy and responsiveness
of national, collective and NGO resources in order to avoid duplication
and improve performance, while maintaining the flexibility of each contributor
to decide on the deployment of assets and capabilities in a particular
crisis, or via a particular channel;
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enhancing and facilitating the EU's
contributions to, and activities within, other organisations, such as the
UN and the OSCE whenever one of them is the lead organisation in a particular
crisis, as well as EU autonomous actions.
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ensuring inter-pillar coherence.
B. To that end:
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Member States and the Union should develop
a rapid reaction capability by defining a framework and modalities, as
well as by pre-identifying personnel, material and financial resources
that could be used in response to a request of a lead agency like the UN
or the OSCE, or, where appropriate, in autonomous EU actions.
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An inventory of national and collective
resources should be pursued to give an overview of resources that could
be marshalled within such a rapid reaction framework. In this process Member
States and the EU institutions could, if they wish, highlight sectors in
which they find that they have acknowledged expertise.
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A database should be set up to maintain
and share information on the preidentified assets, capabilities and expertise
within all areas relevant to non-military crisis management. The availability
and quality of these assets would need to be clearly defined.
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A study should be carried out, taking
into account lessons learned, to define concrete targets for EU Member
States' collective non-military response to international crises (e.g.:
the ability to deploy at short notice and sustain for a defined period
a set number of civilian police as a contribution to civpol missions; to
deploy a combined search and rescue capability of up to 200 people within
twenty-four hours). To that end, and in the light of the Tampere European
Council Conclusions, developing a CIVPOL rapid reaction capability should
be considered as an urgent task.
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The inventory, the database project
and the study should help identify areas of relative strength and weakness
and could promote improved training standards, sharing of experience and
best practice, as well as bilateral or multilateral projects between Member
States (e.g. 'pairing' one member state's helicopter lift with a specialist
medical team from another).
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A coordinating mechanism, with the full
association of the Commission, should be set up at the Council Secretariat.
It would run the database project and the different capabilities initiatives.
In particular crises, depending on the EU's role, it may set up an ad hoc
centre to coordinate the effectiveness of EU Member States' contributions.
This should be a lean, efficient, non-bureaucratic structure permitting
close interaction with the Commission (ECHO in particular).
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As a first step towards establishing
a rapid reaction capability, the co-ordinating mechanism will initially
focus on the field of civilian police with the task of setting up the inventory
and the database, and establishing common training standards based upon
existing UN standards for CIVPOL, in close co-operation with the UN Department
for Peacekeeping Operations. (Danish proposal)
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Rapid financing mechanisms such as the
creation by the Commission of a Rapid reaction Fund (RRF) should be set
up to allow the acceleration of the provision of finance to support EU
activities, to contribute to operations run by other international organisations
and to fund NGO activities, as appropriate.
DECISION-MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION
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The Union should develop a comprehensive
approach with a view to marshalling national and collective non-military
instruments within the time limits called for by the situation on the ground.
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The new decision-making arrangements
to be established within the Union Treaty framework should be able to take
into account both the non-military and military aspects of crisis management
(1).
(1) This paragraph could be redrafted in light of deliberations on decision-making.
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If appropriate, specific Union instruments
could be envisaged to lay down general guidelines, to ensure inter-pillar
coherence, and to set out the means (including financial) which should
be made available. Arrangements for rapid financing mechanisms for a prompt
response to crisis situations could he devised in this context.
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Implementation of the various decisions
would be for the competent authorities in accordance with the procedures
specific to each area of activity. Cooperation and coherence should be
enhanced between relevant instruments of the Union.
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