The EU's marching orders

摘要

The countries of Western Europe are about to embark on A an unprecedented military venture: adapting the structure of the western alliance to let Europe's soldiers do more of the hard soldiering. At a pledging conference in Brussels next week, and then at the EU'S Nice summit in early December, the guidelines will be set for the 60,000-strong force that the EU'S governments have promised will be ready for a range of active duties by 2003. Get this part of the operation right, and both the EU and NATO will emerge better equipped to deal with the new threats that may lie ahead. Get it wrong, how- ever, and the credibility of both will be damaged. The skirmishes still to come are mostly political ones, and the troops and diplomats are all supposed to be on the same side. Yet the EU'S military plans still need to meet some crucial tests, if Europe and America are to avoid an unwanted crisis.