DEFENCE: POLICY DEBATE TO CONTINUE AT INFORMAL MINISTERIAL.

Pre-IGC discussions.

The timing of the October 3-4 Ministerial is indeed significant not least because the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) on a new EU Treaty - in which defence policy is expected to be an important issue - gets under way on October 4. Ministers will no doubt broach outstanding points of difference within the EU on the future of ESDP, at the heart of which lie key questions about the impact on transatlantic relations of the EU taking on a bigger security/military role. Council officials say the discussions are likely to be broadly broken down as follows: EU-NATO relations; development of the EU's military capabilities; and the role of the EU in the Balkans.

Convergence.

The differences on ESDP have in part concerned plans backed by France, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg at their four-way mini-Summit on defence back in April for an independent EU military planning headquarters at Tervuren, outside Brussels. This was countered by a UK suggestion to set up an EU military planning cell at NATO's SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) HQ. The four have also supported moves for a core of EU Member States to be able to forge ahead on defence policy, and the idea of "structured co-operation" taken up in the Convention's draft EU Treaty - about which the UK has also had concerns. There were, however, significant signs at a recent trilateral Summit in Berlin that Britain, France and Germany are narrowing their differences on these issues (see European Report 2805). The UK seemingly softened its stance - coupled with assurances about the role of NATO and that closer defence co-operation would be open to all countries that want to take part, as well as suggestions that France and Germany would not insist on Tervuren.

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Structured Co-operation

According to Article I-40-6 of the European Convention's draft Constitution for Europe: "Those Member States...