DEFENCE: EU READY FOR MACEDONIAN OPERATION, AFTER NATO AGREEMENT.

Macedonia operation on hold.

With NATO having indicated that it can stay on in Macedonia for another six months from December 15, Mr Solana said the discussions with Turkey were "on track". He said he hoped Turkey - which has hitherto vetoed EU access to NATO assets - would have "something positive" to say at the November 21-22 Prague Summit, potentially allowing an agreement to be reached by the end of the year. He added that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's new proposals for Cyprus could have a role to play in settling the NATO question. Mr Papantoniou said he understood that an agreement with Turkey is "very close", meaning the EU could be in a position to take over in Macedonia in the "first months of 2003".

Military capacity not complete.

As Mr Papantoniou explained, the EU is ready to take over the Macedonia mission, but only because it is a "minimum dimension" operation for the EU. There is still work to be done in developing the EU's military capabilities for the bloc to have a fully-fledged Rapid Reaction Force. Foreign Ministers agreed that the various panels of the 'European Capabilities Action Plan' (ECAP) should issue final reports on outstanding strategic 'shortfalls' by March 1, 2003. The Capabilities Conference planned for Athens in May 2003 would then take a final political decision on the gaps that would have to be filled. But Mr Papantoniou was forced to concede that it is not possible to say precisely when full operational capability will be attained following the political decisions expected in May 2003, due to the time needed to procure the additional strategic resources, or to assign existing resources from member states. Transport, for example, remains a key shortcoming, such as in re-fuelling and 'strategic lift' (an area that has been discussed with Ukraine). Financing issues are also still to be resolved, where experts are looking into ways of co-managing strategic resources. But according to Mr Papantoniou, the EU will still be able to intervene in a "large number of cases" as of 2003, even if this means "relying on NATO more than the EU would have liked".

Compatibility with NATO.

Indeed, it is still not abundantly clear precisely how the EU's Rapid Reaction Force will interact with that being planned by NATO itself, although both Mr Papantoniou and Mr Solana insisted that the two forces would be "complementary". Admitting that the question is "complicated", Mr Papantoniou said the EU would focus on the...