EUHR Solana's intervention at the UN Security Council Debate on 'Civilian Crisis Management'

In the last years, civilian aspects have acquired a crucial importance in crisis management. Conflicts between states were until recently the main concern of the international community. The response used to focus on the stabilisation of the situation through the deployment of interposition forces, with a view to finding political solutions. Today, most conflicts are internal. Although the deployment of forces may still be necessary in some cases, the objective is usually wider and more complex: the reinstatement of a legitimate government and of the rule of law.

State reconstruction has both a political and a military dimension, but it also requires the setting up of institutions that the population can trust. Ensuring security is necessary so that a conflict-stricken state can embark upon a course of development. Conversely, without development there will be no security. Those are difficult goals to reach, but striving for them is as important for our security today as the deployment of armed forces was in the past.

The European Union is convinced that it can and must make a significant contribution. The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) was poised from the start to provide the EU with the means allowing it to deploy both military and civilian instruments, with a view to replacing or helping to strengthen the capabilities of the country benefiting from this support.

In a short period of time we have formulated concepts and established structures capable of upholding the deployment of civilian resources. The EU Member States have committed capabilities in different civilian areas (5000 police forces, more than 200 specialists in the strengthening of the rule of law, various public officials and civil protection means). We have carried out operations, training programmes for experts, etc. Moreover, since the EU announced three years ago its operational crisis management capacity, out of the six operations undertaken so far, three are civilian (two police missions and one in the field of the strengthening of the rule of law), and a seventh mission, also police, in the Democratic Republic of Congo is in the planning stages.

But a lot still remains to be done. The recruitment of civilian personnel to be deployed during crisis management operations proves to be more difficult than that of military staff. Our societies should review the recruitment and operational criteria for civilian staff, which until now are focused on strictly domestic requirements.

As stated in the reflection document submitted by the Presidency of the Security Council, we also have to develop new mechanisms, as well as a new culture of civilian-military co-ordination. Synergies must be enhanced and obstacles avoided.

The EU is for its part particularly well placed to meet these challenges, given its wide variety of instruments and its specific nature. Bosnia-Herzegovina is perhaps the most illustrative example of our capacity for action: not only do we have the European Commission's co-operation programmes and the prospect of a strong association process, we also have a police mission and very soon we will have a military operation as a follow-up to the NATO mission.

Furthermore, to give a more comprehensive response to the civilian-military co-ordination needs, the EU will soon have a "Civil-Military Cell" which, among other things, will allow us to implement an integrated planning of crisis management operations.

The EU's action on the last years has had as its main goal the strengthening of what we have agreed to call effective multilateralism, with the UN at its heart. The UN is the only framework that allows the international community to exist, however imperfectly, in the framework of parameters of legal security and justice without which international relations would amount to nothing more than destructive competition.

Last year, around this time, the EU signed a joint declaration with the UN Secretary-General to promote such co-operation further. The EU's expertise and capabilities are at the service of the international community. Today, I want to highlight in particular the EU's decision to support the efforts of the African Union in crisis management.

The challenges are many and we must face them together. The EU wants to contribute with all means to make this world a safer and a better place for everybody. I am confident that today's debate - held in this Council which has the highest responsibility for keeping the international peace and security - will help us achieve further progress in this direction.

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• Joint Declaration on UN-EU Co-operation in Crisis Management (24/9/2003)