- Britain is to commit more than 2,000 troops to a new
18,000-strong European Union army that will be deployed as a peacekeeper
to the world's trouble spots, write Adam Nathan and Nicola Smith.
- Despite concerns within the military about overstretch,
ministers will announce this week that at least one battle group will be
ready by January.
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- They will also say the force will expand by 2007 to comprise
a multinational force of up to 12 elite rapid-reaction battle groups -
each with 1,500 soldiers. At least two of these groups will be ready to
deploy at 15 days' notice to humanitarian or peacekeeping emergencies,
primarily in Africa.
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- Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines
have been earmarked for the new force.
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- A British official said: "A commander could immediately
draw on 1,500 troops who will be sitting in the barracks with their boots
on, ready to go."
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- The creation of the force was signalled earlier this
year by Tony Blair following the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and comes only
a week after Britons had to be evacuated from fighting in the Ivory Coast.
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- Although it is not envisaged that the battle groups would
be deployed to the Middle East, they could have a role in supporting policing
and the rule of law. An EU team is to visit Iraq within the next fortnight.
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- The force - which would comprise the rapid-reaction units
in an EU army that supporters want to expand to 60,000 - is already prompting
some concerns that it could duplicate the role of Nato.
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- Nicholas Soames, the Conservatives' defence spokesman,
said: "We believe the EU defence contribution should be under the
Nato umbrella. Anything that undermines Nato is damaging. We will be studying
the details but this sort of duplication is an expensive waste of time."
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- Some Nato planners are concerned that the new force should
not be used as a cheaper substitute for the alliance and insist that EU
military units must be trained to Nato standards. "It is right to
pose the political questions, but at the moment we do not need to sound
the alarm bell," said a diplomat at Nato HQ in Brussels.
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- Any deployment would require an emergency meeting of
the EU's council of ministers. Membership of a battle group would not be
compulsory and individual nations would retain a veto over deployment.
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- Military command in the field would lie with the country
with the biggest contingent. Britain, France, Italy and Spain will each
provide one battle group made up solely of its troops, while Britain will
share a second battle group with the Dutch. Seventeen EU countries have
committed soldiers.
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- General Jean-Paul Perruche, French head of the EU's military
staff, said the creation of the battle groups was a "significant"
development.
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- "It is the adaptation of the capabilities of Europe
to the new context of crisis in the world. To be able to commit at short
notice a significant trained force, to intervene in an emerging crisis
," he said.
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- It has also been mooted as an attempt to encourage European
countries to investment more in military capabilities. There is growing
concern within Britain's armed forces about their ability to meet their
commitments after it emerged that more than £1 billion is to be cut
from "frontline" forces.
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- Senior officers - including, it is believed, General
Sir Michael Jackson, chief of the general staff - are concerned that it
will leave the army without the funding needed for 1,000 soldiers, about
1% of its force.
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- Commonwealth troops working in sensitive positions in
the British armed forces have been told to adopt British nationality or
lose their jobs. Some 8,000 Commonwealth troops work for the services and
the ultimatum will affect those with access to sophisticated equipment
and sensitive information, particularly in the special forces.
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- The Ministry of Defence said: "There are various
criteria that must be satisfied for personnel with access to sensitive
material, one of which is nationality. The Home Office will fast-track
dual nationality, but if they do not wish to take it we will endeavour
to move them to another part of the service. We are not asking them to
turn their backs on their countries."
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