DEFENCE: SOLANA STILL SEEKING TO DEFUSE CONCERNS ON EU POLICY.

The envisaged Rapid Reaction Force is something at the service of society in Europe and beyond, Mr Solana argued: "Our militaries do not serve themselves. They do not exist for their own sake. They are anchored into our societies and responsive to the values of those societies." He insisted that the EU plan means working closely with the UN, which is itself looking to reform the management of its peacekeeping operations, and with the OSCE, principally on how to co-operate on the deployment of civilian capabilities.The High Representative was also frank about the challenges still to be met: "The target is not a simple one. Our work shows that a number of important capabilities, such as strategic transport, are still lacking and this will require governments to commit greater resources to the endeavour."There is nothing unprecedented in the aspirations behind the new policy, he went on. Even before CESDP has become a reality, the EU is already the largest provider in the world of development assistance and humanitarian aid, the countries of the European Union provide 70% of the troops keeping the peace in Kosovo and Bosnia, and European forces contribute to every one of the UN's 15 peace-keeping operations.NATO candidates prepare.Meanwhile, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia met in Tallinn on 2 July to discuss their prospects of...