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EU seeks independent military role

Belgium said on Tuesday that it would go ahead with plans to build a new European military command headquarters near Brussels next year, despite opposition from the US and Britain.

The Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, told a meeting of Belgian ambassadors in Brussels that the new headquarters was necessary for Europe to be able to "plan and execute European operations autonomously" -- in other words, without interference from the US.

The command center was first proposed in April by Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, the four European states that most vehemently opposed an American-led invasion of Iraq and which for a time had blocked involvement by the NATO.

The EU has long planned for a common European military capacity that would allow it to formulate and pursue a defense policy separate from that of NATO, which is dominated by the US.

In December 1999, the EU's heads of state agreed that, by the end of 2003, member states would be prepared to deploy up to 60,000 troops in American-led military operations, and that the union would eventually build the infrastructure necessary to direct such operations on its own.

Many European officials believe an autonomous European military capacity is necessary in order for the union to have a meaningful foreign policy and give it a stronger voice in world affairs. Otherwise, they argue, Europe's individual states are too weak to play a role independent of the US.

The US has opposed such a policy as an unnecessary duplication of NATO, which already pools European military resources under a single command and plans to build a new headquarters complex near Brussels in the next few years. NATO and the EU agreed in March that NATO would provide planning support and command facilities for union-led "crisis response" operations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier this year that what Europe needs is improved military capability, not more headquarters. The US has been sharply critical of its European NATO partners for lagging on military spending and letting their militaries slip far behind the capabilities of the US.

The controversy over the Iraq war convinced many Europeans -- France and Germany, in particular -- of the need for a separate capacity and separate facilities that would allow Europe to pursue its own agenda without the approval of Washington.

The headquarters proposal has yet to win full support within the union. Britain, for one, opposes the move and has instead proposed the creation of a European military "planning cell" to be based in NATO's military headquarters.

Verhofstadt struck a conciliatory tone in an interview, saying that the US had been right in opposing a Belgian genocide law that was being used to harass world leaders, including US President George W. Bush.

Belgium has moved to amend the law so that it cannot be abused.

Verhofstadt also said that the trans-Atlantic argument over the alleged presence of illegal weapons in iraq should be dropped so that attention can be focused on stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq.

Still, Verhofstadt said his country would press ahead with the plan to build a separate headquarters at Tervuren, just outside of Brussels, by the middle of next year.

The plan will be discussed at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in October before the union's intergovernmental conference.

Referring to a sculpture outside Belgium's Royal Museum of Central Africa, one NATO official said on Tuesday: "There's already one white elephant in Tervuren; the last thing we need is another one."
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