PRESS CONFERENCE BY SWEDEN AS CHAIR OF EUROPEAN UNION

Sweden’s Minister of Defence, Bjorn von Sydow, gave a press conference at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon on interaction between the United Nations and the European Union.  Sweden is currently Chair of the Union.

The Minister reported on discussions he had held today, on the Union’s behalf, with Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette and with representatives of Jordan, South Africa and India (all members of the Non-Aligned Movement). 

Mr. Von Sydow, who was accompanied on the podium by Pierre Schori, permanent representative of Sweden to the United Nations, explained that Deputy Secretary-General Fréchette has expressed optimism about implementation of the recommendations of the expert Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (the Brahimi Report recommendations).  The Union hoped to collaborate with the United Nations in implementing peace-support missions.

Within the Union, he explained, discussions were under way about its global capabilities in areas like military and civilian peace-support missions.  Parts of the discussions focussed on the situation in the Presevo Valley area and in Kosovo.  Today, the General Affairs Council of the Union had decided to increase the number of its military monitors in the Presevo Valley.

Asked about media reports about a new European military capacity external to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he explained that the Union was not establishing a new army, but rather a “crisis management capability” with military as well as civilian components.

According to article 17 of the Union’s 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, the Union should be able to perform humanitarian, civilian, peacekeeping and peace-enforcing missions, he said.  Experience in the Balkans had given momentum to Union discussions about such capabilities, leading to a broad consensus.  NATO had performed a very important and positive role in the Balkans.  But, in cases where NATO may not wish to be engaged, an alternative mechanism could be very useful, he explained.

Responding to a question about European Union missions complementing or replacing United Nations peacekeeping, he said the Union would seek Security Council mandates for any peace-enforcement operations.  Recently, he noted, demand for, and support of, peacekeeping missions mandated -- but not led -- by the United Nations had increased.  The Brahimi report had said the growth of this alternate multinational mechanism for peace was an important development.

The Union was concerned with the whole world, not just with Europe, he added.  The advent of the European Union peacekeeping capabilities should be viewed as an increase in international capacities to support peace.  The Union would seek Security Council mandates but, he said, even after the cold war, the Council had sometimes been hampered by unreasonable vetoes.

Mr. Schori noted that the new European Union capacity might have been useful, for example, in East Timor.  Such scenarios, as well as potential for military and civilian involvement during floods like those in Mozambique, or in a

preventive mission like the one in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, had been discussed.  The United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) had fulfilled an important function, he explained, until it had been vetoed by China.

Asked about Turkey’s offer to contribute troops to the crisis management capability, he said discussion on issues like that would take place between NATO and the Union. 

Mr. Schori said that the Union would host the international conference on least developed countries in Brussels in May.  A proposal to eliminate tariffs and customs on exports of the 48 least developed countries to the European Union had been approved yesterday, with transition regimes for bananas, sugar and rice.  It was important that the Union showed its credibility regarding least developed countries by ensuring they received a high profile in official development assistance.  The Union was also a major contributor to United Nations programmes for least developed countries, he added.  

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