ESDP: FRANCE AND UK UNVEIL AMBITIOUS PLANS FOR EU DEFENCE POLICY.

First EU military operation imminent.

The two leaders made clear that the EU should take on more responsibility for crisis management in Europe. Mr Blair welcomed "very much" France's offer to lead the EU's first military operation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which the EU is expecting to take over from NATO in March. For this to take place, agreements still need to be finalised on EU access to NATO planning and resources, following the political agreement reached in December. The Franco-British declaration issued after the Summit on "strengthening European co-operation in security and defence" states that the two sides will "work to conclude the full set of NATO/EU agreements by March 1. (A Political and Security Committee-North Atlantic Council meeting continued to work on the outstanding details on February 5 in Brussels).

To Bosnia and beyond.

The French and UK leaders underlined their intention that the EU take over a much more ambitious operation - the NATO-led SFOR (Stabilisation Force) mission in Bosnia & Herzegovina. EU leaders had already expressed their willingness to take over this mission in the conclusions of December's Copenhagen Summit. France and the UK say in the joint declaration that they will present proposals to launch work to this end at the EU General Affairs & External Relations Council on February 24-25 in Brussels. Even more ambitiously, France and the UK say they will propose to EU partners that the Union should look at how it could be involved in conflict prevention and peacekeeping in Africa.

Boosting the EU's military capabilities and rapid response.

The Franco-British declaration contains some notable proposals for boosting the EU's military capabilities. It proposes that the EU set new quantitative and qualitative capability objectives, to follow on from the "Helsinki Headline Goal" which is due to be achieved by the end of the year. The idea is to ensure that the Union can act on several fronts simultaneously. And in a bid to ensure that ambition does not outstrip the EU's actual ability to act, the declaration also states that an "inter-governmental defence capabilities development and acquisition agency" could be established in the Union. The aim would be to promote a comprehensive approach to capability development across the EU. The body should identify quantitative objectives such as defence spending, and qualitative criteria such as preparedness...