Task 'Too Big' for Fledgling WEU Force
BRUSSELS, May 2 (Reuters) — Secretary-General of the Western European Union (WEU) Jose Cutileiro ruled out on Thursday any chance of the EU's designated defense arm taking over in Bosnia when NATO's peace mission ends at the end of year."No... the magnitude of the task, it is simply too big," he told a press conference in answer to a question asking if the end of the mandate for NATO's Implementation Force (IFOR) would see the WEU finally coming of age as a security body.
Cutileiro said the fledgling defence grouping simply did not have the capability to mount such an operation despite an expected agreement in June by NATO nations to allow the alliance's largely U.S. assets to be used for Europe-only tasks. The creation of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTFs), as they are known in military jargon, are intended to allow European nations to play a larger role in their own defence, particularly on their own continent, without boosting defence spending.
Agreement on CJTFs fall within the wider scope of NATO reform aimed at adapting the alliance to post-Cold War realities and undertake new types of missions, such as crisis management and peacekeeping.
France, one of the countries most strongly pushing WEU, has recently announced moves to cooperate more closely in NATO's integrated military structures — which it left in 1966 in protest at perceived U.S. domination. Cutileiro welcomed the French decision as giving the WEU a major boost as it removed suspicions the advocates of European defence wanted the grouping to rival the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
"I think this was very positive, everybody now agrees that NATO will be the main cornerstone of the new European security architecture," he said. He added that NATO and the WEU would formally sign on Monday a agreement allowing the WEU access to documents and certain communications codes, hitherto not allowed for security reasons.
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