Matt Mercer examines the challenges for UK armed forces if they are to engage in closer cooperation with their EU counterparts

Britain has a long history of fighting military conflicts alongside allies from both sides of the Atlantic. In two world wars, as well as other military conflicts such as Kosovo, British troops have stood "shoulder to shoulder" with soldiers of other nationalities. With this past, and the push towards ever closer European co-operation continuing to find favour in Brussels, it was perhaps inevitable that the issue of tighter defence integration amongst European Union members would surface.

Given the bitter dispute over the recent Iraq war, the idea of closer European integration on defence might, to some, appear something of a surprise. After all, the conflict saw Tony Blair lined up against a Franco-German axis. But with governments now making determined efforts to "heal the wounds" caused by their Iraq rifts, partnership is back on the agenda.

Although moves towards closer European defence co-operation were cemented at a European Council meeting at the end of last year, the idea of a EU rapid reaction force was first mooted by Tony Blair and French president Chirac at their Saint-Malo summit in 1998.

Although its launch was delayed because of disagreements over EU access to NATO’s assets, planning and logistics, Britain and France agreed to strengthen their military co-operation within the EU at a summit in Le Touquet in February last year. At the meeting, Blair and Chirac agreed to pool military resources and to ensure that they had one battle-ready aircraft carrier group at sea at all times.

The agreement at the European Council meeting last December came six months after France and Germany, together with Belgium and Luxembourg, devised plans for a "core Europe" defence organisation that excluded the UK. However, France and Germany were persuaded to drop their proposals for a defence core, believing that European foreign and defence policies cannot be built without Britain.

They also diluted their original plan for a military headquarters to run EU operations. Instead, a small planning unit with civil/military components would join the existing EU military staff. Britain also compromised by accepting the principle that the EU may need to undertake its own operational planning, and by agreeing that this unit may one day evolve into a real headquarters – if everybody agrees that it should do so.

Yet what does the military top brass say about all this? What effect could differing military theories and the need for updated training have on Britain’s armed forces?  Appearing before the Commons defence select committee, British military chiefs were quizzed on the practicality of running military operations alongside other European countries, as opposed to English speaking allies such as the United States.

The head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West, said: "Within the maritime environment our ability to link in work and talk to what I call the old NATO nations is extremely good. The new NATO members have got some catching up to do, and working with non-NATO nations is tricky because of crypto-incompatibilities."

General Sir Mike Jackson, who has experience of commanding a multi-national force in both the Balkans and Iraq, told the committee that "the degree to which you get cohesion in a multi-national force is to some extent at least a function of the degree of commitment of the national contingents to the task in hand. Some may be more enthusiastic than others."

He also cautioned that troops from different countries "will see the task and see the political circumstances in which they have decided to deploy military force through different perspectives perhaps and national considerations may be different".

Speaking from the Royal Air Force perspective, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said his service would experience fewer difficulties working with other nations. "We have been putting together multinational air packages for quite some time. Within the context of NATO standards still remain the bedrock of being able to do that."

He went on to tell the MPs that from his point of view the main challenges tend to be the passage of information, the technology to allow that to happen and in some cases defensive aids. "We have a very good mechanism for dealing with that certainly within Europe which is called the European Air Group, which is based at High Wycombe, and they work through real world inter-operability issues between European air forces and introduce effective solutions to a number of those."

The EU launched its first peacekeeping operation, in Macedonia, in March last year. Supporters of closer defence ties have used this mission as evidence of the ability of European countries to co-operate successfully in the field. Yet some doubts persist – particularly concerning those European countries that are not members of NATO. Until European forces have successfully completed joint operations in hostile conditions, these concerns are likely to remain.

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