Chairman of the European Union Military Committee Address to the National Israeli Defence College "The EU Common Security and Defence Policy and the Role of the Military Committee" Brussels, 13 April 2016 Officers, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to be here today. I had the opportunity to engage with Israeli officers during my career and I have come to the conclusion that they are very demanding in their professional transactions. So I came here today forewarned and well prepared! I understand that the goal of the College, when it was first founded in 1962, was the " consolidation of a comprehensive national defence doctrine and the creation of a common language on topics of national security amongst all those who carry the burden of the national security in the State". To me, this mission statement is very similar with our European Union Comprehensive Approach. But, I will return to this in a while. I also know that at the opening ceremony of the College forty years ago, the Chief of General Staff challenged the College to become the arena in which the existential questions of the State of Israel would be discussed. This means that you have been selected to attend this course because your nation places faith in your capabilities and so decided to invest in your further development as future leaders! The same applies to the participants that come from other Ministries, and, of course, to the international students.
-2- I will begin my speech with some words of wisdom. Not my words, unfortunately! I assume you have read or heard it before. It summons the true and eternal nature of geopolitics, unaffected by the passage of time and equally valid today, as it was in the fifth century B.C. Even today, despite all the progress our societies have made and the importance we place on universal values, "The strong (still) do what they can and the weak (still) suffer what they must." With this cynical view in mind, I will present you the power Europe has, with a focus to the "hard" element of it. During the following thirty minutes, I will argue that: The European Union is a credible and important global security actor The European Union applies a Comprehensive Approach to establish and maintain security, and that In doing so, and addressing the contemporary challenges and threats, it seeks Co-operation and Partnership. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 gave the European Union a single voice towards its interactions with the rest of the world, a "Foreign Minister" of a kind. Although not officially a Minister of Foreign Affairs, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy as the full title is, ensures consistency between the areas of EU external action, and more visibility and stability. The High Representative leads the European Union External Action Service and chairs the Council of Foreign Ministers and the meetings of the Defence Ministers. Besides being the High Representative, she is dual-hatted as the Vice President of the European Commission. Every day work is performed by permanent bodies, such as the Political and Security Committee dealing with Common Foreign Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy. It consists of ambassadors from the EU Member-States who meet three to four times per week. The decisions taken at this, political, level are translated into actionable
-3- proposals at the next level, the EU Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management, or just Civ-Com, and the Military Committee. Considering the aforementioned it becomes evident that the High Representative is actually more than the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the European Union but also the Minister of Defence in some aspects. The European Union Military Committee (EUMC) is the highest military body set up within the Council. It is composed of the Chiefs of Defence (CHOD) of the Member States, who are on a daily basis represented by their permanent Military Representatives (MilReps) based in Brussels. The EUMC exercises military direction of all EU military activities and provides the Political and Security Committee (PSC) with advice and recommendations on military matters. As the Chairman of the Military Committee, I have been selected by the Chiefs of Defence of the Member States and appointed by the Council for a three year term. Besides chairing the meetings of the Military Committee and acting as the Military Advisor to the High Representative, I am also entrusted with being the primary point of contact of the Commanders of all CSDP military Operations and Missions. Ladies and Gentlemen, Today's world is not safer compared to what it was ten or twenty years ago. New challenges and threats are added to old, traditional ones. Transnational terrorism, proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and their delivery system, cyber, piracy, organized crime, climate change, access to global commons, state failure, I am sure that we all agree that they present challenges and threats to the global security, and therefore to the EU. There are however two of the threats that are of the highest importance, each one for different reasons. The first one is the threat from the East. A threat coming right out of the past. A threat against the territorial integrity or the political independence of some of the EU Member-States and their neighbours. Russia's revisionist policy, as demonstrated in Ukraine, raises dormant fears and marks the return to a not-so-distant nor forgotten past. It is a threat coming from a state actor and state actors have a specific
-4- structure, logic, and weaknesses. They are, with very specific exemptions such as North Korea, incorporated in the global system and they adhere to rational choices. In countering this threat from the East, NATO has the leading role. The second one, totally different in every aspect, comes from the South. And this is a two folded threat. There is the threat posed by transnational terrorist organizations like Da'esh, Al Nusra, AQIM, Boko Haram. A threat not only against the countries in the territories of which they operate but also a threat against our citizens, our societies, against the entire civilised world. And then, there are also the waves of the refugees and immigrants that try to illegally arrive in Europe through our maritime borders in Greece and Italy. What fuels them to engage in this perilous trip to Europe? Terror of these organizations of course and war. But at the same time, poverty, hunger, unemployment and bad governance have their fair share. Short version? Lack of a future. A shorter one? Despair. These last two challenges Europe faces, they underline the need for increased solidarity among European Nations. In Europe, we consider that all these challenges require responses on a scale that individual States, and even regional organisations alone, cannot provide. We consider that the European Union's security interests are global and that Defence begins far away from our own borders. In order to face these diverse threats, the European Union has developed its Common Security and Defence Policy and a genuine Crisis Management Capability to put that Policy into action. The European Union is NOT a security Organization. This may sound a weakness but, actually, it is its strength. Because the European Union being a multidimensional entity, it possesses a wide array of tools at its disposal. Tools in the areas of defence, security, diplomacy, finance, trade, development, and humanitarian aid. And the big challenge is to create and apply in a strategically coherent and efficient manner, the optimal mix of these tools to address the situation each time at hand. This is the Comprehensive Approach, the EU s trademark! In which the EU military has an important role to play, as an integral part of a broader strategy. This is of great significance and I will give you more details later on. We should always bear in our minds that the ultimate solution to a crisis will always be political, and will definitely require the use of diplomatic and civilian means just as much as military ones.
-5- As of today, approximately 3.400 military troops are serving in 6 EU military Operations and Missions in Africa, in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Balkans. This is the highest number of military operations and military training or advisory missions the European Union has ever run at the same time. I will briefly present you these Missions and Operations, to give you an idea on the versatile roles the military can have, apart from its traditional one. The EU Naval Operation Atalanta is tackling piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean since 2008. Compared to previous years piracy at sea is now at the lowest level. However it does not mean that the threat has disappeared. Capability and intent are still present. The only thing missing and results in zero piracy incidents, is opportunity. And this is what we deny to the pirates. So, the level of security established in this critical to the European interests maritime region means that collectively we are efficient. And the deterrence we project is the result of our readiness and our resolve. In Somalia, the EU Training Mission is helping building up the new Somali Armed Forces. Over the past years more than 4.000 Somali military personnel have been successfully trained and are now contributing to foster stability in their country alongside their African Union partners. The EU is also building maritime capacity in the region through the civilian EUCAP Nestor Mission which has started to train Coast Guards in Djibouti, Kenya, the Seychelles, as well as the coastal police in Mogadishu, Puntland and in the Somaliland regions. These CSDP actions are part of an overall engagement which also includes the funding of the African Union mission AMISOM, which operates in Somalia, and the EU Development and Humanitarian Assistance. They put Comprehensive Approach into practice. In Mali, the EU is assisting the Malian authorities in building up their own professional military capabilities. About 550 military personnel from 22 EU Member States are engaged in the professional training and the provision of advice to the Malian Ministry of Defence. As of today 7 Malian battalions have been trained and 1 more will be trained shortly. For the longer term, a Strategic Review of EUTM
-6- Mali is now undergoing an agreement process by the PSC, a process that will shape the future of this mission. At the beginning of April 2014 the EU launched its operation EUFOR RCA in the Central African Republic upon request from the United Nations. EUMAM RCA is an Advisory Mission that followed the very successful EUFOR RCA Operation that ended in 2015. Similarly to EUTM Mali, a Strategic Review combined with a Crisis Management Concept is currently being developed for the transition to a EU raining Mission replacing EUMAM, now that the country had successfully held elections. Since last June a large maritime operation has been launched in the Southern Central Mediterranean, EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia. The aim of this military operation is to identify, capture and dispose of vessels as well as enabling assets used, or suspected of being used, by migrant smugglers or traffickers. Twenty two member states contribute to this operation which has moved to Phase 2, since October 7. Operationally, this means that now the EUNAVFOR MED assets will conduct boarding, search, seizure and diversion, on the high seas, of vessels suspected of being used for human smuggling or trafficking. Last, but most certainly not least, let me also mention the EU's military engagement in Europe, in the Balkans, in Bosnia Herzegovina where about 700 troops have guaranteed a safe and secure environment for the population for more than 11 years now. It is the Operation ALTHEA. There is a reason I left ALTHEA for the end of the Missions and Operations brief. ALTHEA is an example that clearly portrays the added value and inherent advantage of an EU-led operation under CSDP, applying the European Comprehensive Approach. ALTHEA succeeded NATO SFOR operation in 2004. This transition meant much more than just repainting helicopters and vehicles. It was the first operation of the European Union, organized under the "Berlin Plus" Arrangement and the first real crash test of the European Union. And it was successful. The security issue is very important for the Bosnia Herzegovina. Their membership to NATO Action Plan and a future membership are of great importance. But this will just be on the surface, as the underlying factors that led to the crisis will have not been addressed. This is what
-7- the European Union, with its Comprehensive Approach, brings to the table. A holistic approach, expanding to all relevant sectors of the government and the society, doing an in depth job, gradually removing the layers of tension, sharing good governance best practices tailored to the specific country. On the military side, taking over from NATO, the European Union maintains a safe and secure environment, providing Capacity-Building and training to the local security and defence-related Institutions. In short, we help them take care of their own security, in a broader sense and in much more relevant sectors, with a lot more tools because, ultimately, their security is our security as well. This is how we differ from NATO. Bearing in mind all the CSDP operations and missions mentioned, you realize that the European Union is an important security provider, with the military being one out of a wide range of tools involved. Today, we understand that internal security in Europe cannot exist without an external dimension. The Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU is an open project. We, the military, have to be prepared for what we can never fully know beforehand. But, this is a task very difficult for any nation, or even EU to take up by itself. In order to face the very wide range of challenges and threats, some of which I have outlined, the EU does not restrict itself to cooperation just between its Member-States. Partnerships can build upon the knowledge, expertise and specific capabilities of partners. Therefore, the EU is firmly committed to working in close collaboration with partners. Nine partner countries with about 300 troops are contributing to our missions and operations. I thank them for this. Together, we extend our respective borderline. Homeland defence begins abroad, in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Mali, Central African Republic. It begins right where the problem exists, not where the symptoms appear. We therefore create a new, far-away from us, borderline, which we "defend" not with walls and fences and bunkers, but by building security and prosperity. By restoring hope, trying, with the use of "Soft" Power and security, to create favourable conditions for the local population to stay home.
-8- Defence is usually regarded as waiting for the threat to appear at your borders and attack you first, before you respond and repel. We provide defence and security to our societies by going out to the source of the problems, or the potential ones and deal with them before they reach their "flash or critical point". At this point I need to return to the Comprehensive Approach concept, as promised. Comprehensive Approach, the "Smart" Power, consists of the "Hard" power which is the military, the security and its activities and "Soft" Power, which is all the rest. The new threats to the East and to the South make necessary the increase of the "Hard" power dosage to our overall "Smart" power mix. In most of the cases, in our missions we do not provide security "per se". We provide training of the local Armed Forces to provide security by themselves. We try to create a sustainable safe and secure environment not by using our own troops but by building these countries' capacity to take care of their own security. And there is a very strong rationale behind this. A phrase, attributed by some to the 12th-century Jewish philosopher and astronomer Maimonides, or Moshe ben Maimon, best describes what we are trying to achieve: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." In order for development and growth to come, a secure and safe environment must be in place. Security has to be sustainable. Nations have to have ownership and responsibility over the security of their citizens and their defense. This is what we do. We train and advise them on how to effectively achieve this, BUT in a way that is in line with the internationally recognized and followed code of conduct. We make them efficient and responsible. We do this with the objective, or the hope if you will, that we will not have to return. With the objective that we will build our next partner in our effort to advance security and stability. Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me conclude:
-9- The European Union is a credible and important provider of peace and security in the world through its many civilian and military EU missions and operations. The European Union's approach to crisis is always comprehensive and includes also diplomacy, security, defence, finances, trade, development, and humanitarian aid. So, the military is only one of many tools. The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy is an open project. Security challenges arise around the whole world. No country can solve all problems on its own, however powerful it may be. Therefore international cooperation and partnership are crucial elements to maintain or establish security. The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy builds on these principles. Before opening the Q&A session, I offer you another famous phrase, again by Thucydides: I leave it for your reflection. "[ ] bold beyond their strength, adventurous above their own reason, and in danger hope still the best. I would like to wish you all, every success in your career and your personal endeavours. I am confident that the future of the Israeli Armed Forces, as well as those of the countries that are represented here today, will continue to be in good hands. Thank you! Edited by: Captain (Hellenic Navy) Vasileios Loukovitis