November 30, 2003	Sunday	Shawwal 5, 1424

NAPLES, Nov 29: European foreign ministers achieved a breakthrough on Saturday on defence arrangements for an enlarged EU, but the United States may object to one feature that a NATO diplomat branded a “Trojan Horse”.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said a joint proposal by Europe’s three big powers — France, Britain and Germany — won broad acceptance, enabling EU president Italy to circulate new draft constitutional articles on defence.

“It’s an important breakthrough which augurs well for our ambition for the (Dec 12-13) Brussels European summit”, due to finalize the EU’s first constitution, he said.

The Italian draft, based on the big three’s ideas, proposed a mutual defence clause, recognizing NATO as the foundation of collective defence for its members which include most EU states.

Non-aligned EU members Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Austria expressed reservations, saying they could not accept any formula that bound them automatically into a military alliance.

The draft set criteria for states to join closer EU defence cooperation, including the ability to deploy troops within five to 30 days for military missions, notably to support the United Nations, and sustain them in the field from one to four months.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said discussions were continuing with “partners and allies” — code for Washington.

Seeking to allay US concerns, he said: “I am clear as a 100 percent signed-up Atlanticist, and so is the prime minister (Tony Blair) as a 200 percent signed-up Atlanticist, that this is a set of conclusions which will underpin NATO and over time strengthen it.”

First reaction from the United States was non-committal. EU diplomats said Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned at least two ministers in Naples on Friday seeking clarification of initial reports of the accord.

WASHINGTON STILL WORRIED: A State Department official hinted Washington still had worries that the proposed arrangements could eventually rival NATO, by creating a small EU military planning cell independent of the U.S.-led alliance.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said this was a detail for defence ministers, not part of the constitution.

NATO defence ministers are bound to take up the issue when U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visits Brussels from Sunday for a regular meeting on the Atlantic alliance.

“I think people will regard this as a Trojan horse. You start with 30 in a (planning) cell and end up with 300,” a NATO diplomat said. “It’s a bridgehead to something much bigger.”

Straw stressed that London had managed to build more brakes into EU defence integration, such as a requirement that all 25 member states must approve any joint military operation.

A protocol to be added to the treaty made clear that closer EU defence cooperation among a pioneer group of states would focus on developing better military capabilities, rather than duplicating NATO structures.

Such “structured cooperation” would only be launched if a majority of EU states approved and any states that met the capabilities criteria would remain able to join later.

The terms were something of a climbdown for four European opponents of the Iraq invasion — France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg — which drafted plans for a European Defence Union in April, including a separate EU military planning headquarters outside NATO.

But officials said a small cell of planning officers attached to the existing EU military staff in Brussels could be called upon to help plan operations where NATO chose not to be involved and national European headquarters needed support.

Diplomats said EU candidate Turkey, a major NATO ally, was seeking assurances that it could participate in the new defence cooperation before it joined the bloc.

CONSTITUTION: On Saturday, the EU ministers also began thrashing out the most divisive issues of member states’ relative weighted votes in decision-making, and the size of the future European Commission, as well as the powers of a future EU foreign minister.

Vote-weighting has sharply divided the bloc as it negotiates a constitution billed as enabling it to run smoothly after it takes in 10 new states to expand to 25 members next May.

At stake is a treaty agreed in Nice in 2000, under which Poland and Spain received voting power far greater than the size of their populations.

They insist they will not give this up, and implacably oppose the constitution draft, which provides for most decisions to be taken by a “double majority” of at least half of EU member states representing 60 percent of the bloc’s population.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Friday the Italian presidency of the EU would not bow to Spanish requests that it put forward a different proposal if Nice is scrapped.—Reuters