EU — Council conclusions on Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)

West­ern Balkans

EULEX KOSOVO

4. The Coun­cil not­ed the impor­tant and spe­cif­ic role played by the mis­sion in strength­en­ing the sta­bil­i­ty of the region in line with its Euro­pean per­spec­tive. The Coun­cil reit­er­at­ed its full sup­port to the fur­ther efforts of EULEX to exer­cise its man­date through­out Kosovo.

5. The Coun­cil not­ed with sat­is­fac­tion the results achieved so far by EULEX KOSOVO in a dif­fi­cult envi­ron­ment assist­ing judi­cial and law enforce­ment agen­cies and in pro­mot­ing rule of law reforms, includ­ing in the pros­e­cu­tion and adju­di­ca­tion of sen­si­tive crim­i­nal cases.

6. The Coun­cil expressed its sup­port for the mission’s approach to inten­si­fy its efforts in the fight against organ­ised crime and cor­rup­tion. The Coun­cil fur­ther wel­comed efforts to increase the mission’s pres­ence and activ­i­ties in the north of Koso­vo, along­side oth­er EU actors, includ­ing through the estab­lish­ment of the EU House in Mitrovica.

7. The Coun­cil reit­er­at­ed that the imple­men­ta­tion of the EULEX KOSOVO man­date will require a con­sis­tent com­mit­ment by all stake­hold­ers. The Coun­cil under­lined the impor­tance of coop­er­a­tion by region­al part­ners with the mis­sion and of the strong sup­port by inter­na­tion­al part­ners. It also stressed the need for con­tin­ued and gen­uine coop­er­a­tion of Koso­vo author­i­ties with the mis­sion. The Coun­cil expressed its con­tin­ued sup­port to EULEX Kosovo’s efforts to enhance region­al cooperation.

EUPM Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina (EUPM)

8. The Coun­cil wel­comed the efforts car­ried out by EUPM in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina (BiH) to achieve its man­date and not­ed the impor­tant role played by the mis­sion as part of the over­all EU efforts towards BiH Euro­pean per­spec­tive. It wel­comed the refo­cus­ing of the mission’s man­date on the sup­port to the fight against organ­ised crime and cor­rup­tion as well as results achieved so far in this area.

Oper­a­tion ALTHEA

9. The Coun­cil wel­comed Oper­a­tion Althea’s con­tin­ued impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the EU’s com­pre­hen­sive efforts in BiH. The Coun­cil recalled its Con­clu­sions of 25 Jan­u­ary 2010.

10. The Coun­cil wel­comed progress with the imple­men­ta­tion of the Operation’s new capac­i­ty­build­ing and train­ing tasks, which would con­tribute to strength­en­ing local own­er­ship and capac­i­ty. It also reit­er­at­ed the impor­tance of Mem­ber States con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide the nec­es­sary resources for the ongo­ing Operation’s exec­u­tive role.

South Cau­ca­sus

EUMM Geor­gia

11. The Coun­cil wel­comed the con­tin­ued efforts of the EUMM in imple­ment­ing its man­date. The EUMM has made and con­tin­ues to make sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions in the area of sta­bil­i­sa­tion and nor­mal­i­sa­tion of the sit­u­a­tion in Geor­gia. First of all through its mon­i­tor­ing activ­i­ties and by pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the par­ties via the Inci­dent Pre­ven­tion and Response Mech­a­nisms (IPRM).

12. The Coun­cil reit­er­at­ed its call on all sides to ful­ly imple­ment the Six-Point Agree­ment and sub­se­quent imple­ment­ing mea­sures to par­tic­i­pate con­struc­tive­ly in the Gene­va talks and increase their efforts to mit­i­gate the con­se­quences of the con­flict for the local pop­u­la­tion. While express­ing its con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to Georgia’s inde­pen­dence, sov­er­eign­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty as well as to the prin­ci­pal of non-use of force, the Coun­cil reit­er­at­ed its sup­port for the full imple­men­ta­tion of the EUMM’s coun­try-wide man­date, includ­ing access to the de-fac­to entities.

13. While acknowl­edg­ing that progress on con­fi­dence build­ing has tak­en place, the Coun­cil called on all actors on the ground to pur­sue their efforts on con­fi­dence build­ing includ­ing as regards IDP return. The Coun­cil also not­ed the Geor­gian government’s new strat­e­gy for engage­ment with the break­away regions of Abk­hazia and South Osse­tia and called on all par­ties to seek oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve the lives and free move­ment of peo­ple on both sides of the Admin­is­tra­tive Bound­ary Line. Ensur­ing free move­ment across the ABL is a key to con­fi­dence building.

Asia

EUPOL Afghanistan

14. The Coun­cil wel­comed the strate­gic reform efforts of EUPOL AFGHANISTAN and its con­tin­u­ous work in strength­en­ing the Afghan police and rule of law sec­tor. The Coun­cil recog­nis­es the impor­tance of EUPOL Afghanistan becom­ing the coor­di­na­tor for the devel­op­ment of two pil­lars of the Afghan Nation­al Police, name­ly the Afghan Civil­ian Police and the Afghan Anti­crime Police as request­ed by the Afghan Min­is­ter of the Inte­ri­or. Sus­tain­able civil­ian polic­ing struc­tures are a cru­cial ele­ment of the tran­si­tion strat­e­gy agreed upon in the Lon­don Conference.

15. The Coun­cil wel­comed ongo­ing work in prepar­ing EUPOL Afghanistan’s exten­sion and, in that con­text, a pos­si­ble adap­ta­tion of its man­date. The Coun­cil also wel­comed the HR’s inten­tion to keep the mis­sion under review, while ensur­ing its con­ti­nu­ity and effectiveness.

16. The Coun­cil wel­comed the con­tin­ued progress made by EUPOL AFGHANISTAN at strate­gic, oper­a­tional and tac­ti­cal lev­els in line with its strate­gic objec­tives. The Coun­cil acknowl­edged the progress and expan­sion of the City Police Projects in build­ing effec­tive city police forces through­out the coun­try. The Coun­cil also wel­comed the empha­sis of the mis­sion on close coor­di­na­tion of its activ­i­ties with oth­er EU instru­ments and key part­ners, espe­cial­ly the recent­ly acti­vat­ed coop­er­a­tion with the NATO Train­ing Mis­sion Afghanistan.

Mid­dle East

EUJUST LEX

17. The Coun­cil reaf­firmed the strong com­mit­ment of the Euro­pean Union to sup­port the con­tin­ued devel­op­ment of the rule of law in Iraq. The pro­posed activ­i­ties for the mis­sion over the next 2 years will also increase its pres­ence and vis­i­bil­i­ty in Iraq, as well as more spe­cial­ized and alum­ni fol­low up train­ing in coun­try, build­ing upon the suc­cess of recent pilot activ­i­ties. The Coun­cil wel­comed ongo­ing work in prepar­ing EUJUST LEX’s exten­sion until June 2012, fol­low­ing a strate­gic review.

EUPOL COPPS

18. The Coun­cil wel­comed the work car­ried out by EUPOL COPPS in the estab­lish­ment of sus­tain­able and effec­tive polic­ing arrange­ments and in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sec­tor. The Coun­cil looked for­ward to ini­tia­tives aimed at enhanc­ing the mission’s impact and con­tri­bu­tion to the capac­i­ty build­ing of the PA and to this end encour­aged the fur­ther strength­en­ing of the mission’s action at the strate­gic, oper­a­tional and field lev­el in close coop­er­a­tion with Pales­tin­ian coun­ter­parts and oth­er stakeholders.

EUBAM RAFAH

19. The Coun­cil reaf­firmed the polit­i­cal impor­tance of EUBAM Rafah and its con­tin­ued sup­port for the mis­sion. It wel­comed in par­tic­u­lar the main­te­nance of the mission’s oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty as well as its reac­ti­va­tion plan, which would ensure a rapid resump­tion of its full activ­i­ties in case of re-open­ing of the Rafah Cross­ing Point. The Coun­cil wel­comed ongo­ing work in prepar­ing EUBAM Rafah’s extension.

Africa

Oper­a­tion ATALANTA/EUNAVFOR

20. The Coun­cil com­mend­ed that ATALANTA con­tin­ued to suc­cess­ful­ly con­tribute to mar­itime secu­ri­ty off the coast of Soma­lia by pro­tect­ing World Food Pro­gramme char­tered ves­sels deliv­er­ing aid to Soma­lia, ves­sels sup­ply­ing crit­i­cal ship­ments to the AU peace sup­port oper­a­tion in Soma­lia (AMISOM), and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble ves­sels. The Coun­cil also wel­comed the grow­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of third states and looked for­ward to the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Ukraine and Mon­tene­gro in ATALANTA, fur­ther to that of Nor­way and Croatia.

21. The Coun­cil not­ed that a large major­i­ty of suc­cess­ful attacks by pirates took place in cir­cum­stances where rec­om­mend­ed best prac­tice had appar­ent­ly been ignored. The inter­na­tion­al mar­itime com­mu­ni­ty was there­fore encour­aged to fur­ther pro­mote full adher­ence to that rec­om­mend­ed practice.

22. The Coun­cil recalled the lead­ing role tak­en by ATALANTA in the SHADE (Shared Aware­ness and Decon­flic­tion) mech­a­nism to pro­mote coor­di­na­tion between the multi­na­tion­al, nation­al and region­al naval forces oper­at­ing in the area. In this respect, the Coun­cil wel­comed the Chi­nese deci­sion to coop­er­ate more close­ly with oth­er naval forces in tak­ing active respon­si­bil­i­ty on a rotat­ing basis for the coor­di­na­tion of naval assets in the Inter­na­tion­al­ly Rec­om­mend­ed Tran­sit Cor­ri­dor in the Gulf of Aden.

23. The Coun­cil wel­comed the cru­cial con­tri­bu­tions being made by Kenya and the Repub­lic of Sey­chelles, on the basis of trans­fer agree­ments with the EU, to the deten­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates and armed rob­bers appre­hend­ed by ATALANTA. The Coun­cil asked that all efforts be made to sup­port Kenya and the Sey­chelles in their impor­tant roles, and recalled the EU’s readi­ness to step up the dia­logue and con­tin­ue to pro­vide assistance.

24. The Coun­cil strong­ly encour­aged ongo­ing work on the crit­i­cal need to expand the inter­na­tion­al community’s capac­i­ty for the pros­e­cu­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates. It recalled its autho­ri­sa­tion of nego­ti­a­tions for trans­fer agree­ments between the EU and fur­ther region­al coun­tries, name­ly Mau­ri­tius, Mozam­bique, South Africa, Tan­za­nia and Ugan­da. In this con­text, the Coun­cil high­light­ed the EU’s sup­port for Kenya’s and Sey­chelles’ judi­cial sys­tems through the Instru­ment for Sta­bil­i­ty, as well as pos­si­ble sim­i­lar sup­port for oth­er States in the region. The Coun­cil wel­comed the recent amend­ments in Tan­zan­ian law, which pro­vide for pros­e­cu­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates.

25. The Coun­cil under­lined the neces­si­ty to pur­sue efforts aim­ing at sus­tain­able solu­tions for the pros­e­cu­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates tak­ing notably into account work car­ried out in the frame­work of the Con­tact Group on Pira­cy off the Coast of Soma­lia. The Coun­cil took note of ini­tia­tives tak­en in the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil in this field.

26. The Coun­cil sup­port­ed and encour­aged con­tin­u­ing efforts by the Inter­na­tion­al Mar­itime Organ­i­sa­tion to sup­press pira­cy and armed rob­bery at sea.

27. The Coun­cil encour­aged the African Union and the region­al organ­i­sa­tions of East and South­ern Africa and the Indi­an Ocean to take on an increas­ing sense of own­er­ship of the pira­cy issue and looked for­ward to the reflec­tion of this in region­al programmes.

28. The Coun­cil request­ed the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to pre­pare work for the poten­tial fur­ther exten­sion of Oper­a­tion Ata­lan­ta beyond Decem­ber 2010, for con­sid­er­a­tion by the Coun­cil in due time, tak­ing into account oper­a­tional requirements.

EUTM Soma­lia

29. The Coun­cil reit­er­at­ed the Euro­pean Union strong com­mit­ment to respond­ing to the pri­or­i­ty needs of the Soma­li peo­ple and sta­bi­liz­ing Soma­lia. As part of its com­pre­hen­sive approach to the sit­u­a­tion in Soma­lia, the EU sup­ports the imple­men­ta­tion of the Dji­bouti Agreement.

30. The EU and its Mem­ber States are sup­port­ing the Tran­si­tion­al Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment of Soma­lia (TFG) to begin rebuild­ing secu­ri­ty and cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment in which the gains of peace can be real­ized. In this regard, the Coun­cil stressed the impor­tance of TFG’s own­er­ship and wel­comed the TFG’s com­mit­ment to this process.

31. In this con­text, the Coun­cil com­mend­ed the launch on 7 April 2010 of EUTM Soma­lia, a mil­i­tary train­ing mis­sion in Ugan­da. This mis­sion will con­tribute to strength­en­ing the Soma­li Secu­ri­ty Forces through the pro­vi­sion of spe­cif­ic mil­i­tary train­ing for 2000 Soma­li recruits up to and includ­ing pla­toon lev­el, includ­ing appro­pri­ate mod­u­lar and spe­cial­ized train­ing for offi­cers and non com­mis­sioned officers.

32. The Coun­cil stressed that EUTM Soma­lia should be con­sid­ered as part of a wider EU and inter­na­tion­al engage­ment towards Soma­lia. It expressed its sat­is­fac­tion with the close coop­er­a­tion that has been estab­lished with key part­ners in this com­mon endeav­our, in par­tic­u­lar with Ugan­da, the African Union, AMISOM, the Unit­ed Nations and the Unit­ed States. It wel­comed the sig­nif­i­cant progress made so far, and under­lined the impor­tance of ensur­ing that the wider con­di­tions con­tin­ue to be put in place for the effec­tive and sus­tain­able con­tri­bu­tion of EUTM trainees to the Soma­li secu­ri­ty forces and the sta­bil­i­sa­tion of Somalia.

EUSEC RD Congo

33. The Coun­cil wel­comed the work of EUSEC RD Con­go and stressed that defence reform and good gov­er­nance in the defence field remain key fac­tors in cre­at­ing con­di­tions for last­ing sta­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ment in the country.

34. The Coun­cil under­lined the impor­tance of EUSEC RD Congo’s key tasks of pro­vid­ing advice and assis­tance for defence reform with the aim of imple­ment­ing the Con­golese revised reform plan for the Con­golese Armed Forces (FARDC) and to trans­late it into con­crete actions. The Coun­cil high­light­ed the impor­tance of polit­i­cal com­mit­ment and coor­di­na­tion by the Con­golese author­i­ties to take the reform process for­ward, and the role of the UN, in close coop­er­a­tion with the Con­golese author­i­ties, on SSR.

35. The Coun­cil wel­comed the end of the cen­sus process for the CNDP at the end of Novem­ber 2009. It empha­sised the need to con­tin­ue work on inte­grat­ing all for­mer armed groups.

36. The Coun­cil under­lined the impor­tance of local Con­golese own­er­ship in the first instance and the over­all EU engage­ment in DRC in pre­vent­ing and address­ing human rights vio­la­tions; in the fight against sex­u­al vio­lence and in address­ing chil­dren affect­ed by armed conflict.

EUPOL RD Congo

37. The Coun­cil wel­comed the work of EUPOL RD Con­go in sup­port­ing the reform of the Con­golese nation­al police and its inter­ac­tion with the jus­tice sec­tor, in par­tic­u­lar recent pos­i­tive results, such as the sub­mis­sion of the draft Organ­ic Law for the Police to the Con­golese Nation­al Assem­bly. The Coun­cil also not­ed the adop­tion of oth­er sig­nif­i­cant doc­u­ments such as the Police Action Plan and the impor­tant coor­di­na­tion work con­duct­ed by the Comité de Suivi de la Réforme de la Police (CSRP).

38. The Coun­cil wel­comed the work start­ed by the mis­sion anten­nas in Goma and Bukavu and the rein­forced effort in the area of crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion, includ­ing the fight against impuni­ty and sex­u­al violence.

EU SSR Guinea-Bissau

39. The Coun­cil wel­comed the work of EU SSR Guinea-Bis­sau in sup­port­ing local author­i­ties to bring for­ward the reform process. Par­tic­u­lar empha­sis was giv­en to final­is­ing basic leg­is­la­tion under­pin­ning the new secu­ri­ty struc­tures in the sec­tors of defence, police and justice.

40. The Coun­cil called for a com­pre­hen­sive approach to future EU engage­ment in secu­ri­ty sec­tor reform. How­ev­er, in light of recent events in Guinea-Bis­sau, engage­ment will depend on fur­ther polit­i­cal devel­op­ments, includ­ing respect for demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples, human rights and rule of law allow­ing sta­bil­i­ty and progress on such reform.