German proposals to create military structures and a military capacity within the EU are unnecessary and go beyond the requirements of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.
Mr Andrews yesterday told fellow foreign ministers at their informal meeting outside Eltville, a small Rhineland town, that Ireland was committed to strengthening the EU's security capacity and would sign up to NATO's Partnership for Peace programmes.
But he said the EU's emphasis should be on making the treaty's provisions work first before creating new structures.
The German proposal was broadly welcomed by other ministers although the debate was cut short.
But the Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Hans van den Broek, said he "had followed the discussion for 15 years and can see that the debate in the EU for the first time is moving towards acceptance by all that the EU must have operational and military capabilities for Peters berg tasks (humanitarian and peacekeeping missions)".
Other neutrals were more enthusiastic than Mr Andrews about the proposal, with the Swedish and Finnish ministers saying they had no problem with them.
But the Dutch Minister, Mr Josias van Aartsen, opposed any suggestion that military operations could be conducted in anything but a NATO context. To do otherwise would result in unnecessary duplication, he said.
And British officials were also sceptical. "We have always seen military planning being done by NATO and don't see much value in duplicating tasks," one said.
Although they are unlikely to require treaty changes, the German proposals go beyond the structures agreed at Amsterdam in explicitly creating military structures and a potential military capacity within the EU.
The brief German paper argues that a credible Common Foreign and Security Policy "requires a capacity for action backed up by credible military capabilities and appropriate decision-making bodies. Decisions to act would be taken within the institutional framework of the EU".
It insists that any such developments should not be seen as undermining NATO's role. But the EU must be capable of effecting EU-led operations without the use of NATO assets and have "the necessary capabilities including military capabilities".
In terms of analysis and political control, the Germans suggest regular involvement of defence ministers at meetings of the General Affairs Council, a permanent committee of political military experts, an "EU Military Committee consisting of military representatives", and a military staff.
