BRUSSELS 21-22 February 2008 European Union defense ministers meet informally to review setbacks and new challenges

When they meet in February the defense ministers of the European Union could still be trying to clear the obstacles to deploying some 4000 EU troops to Chad and neighboring areas. The planned contingent will complement the Mixed United Nations-African Union force planned for Darfur, Sudan. By the time of the meeting the ministers could also be mulling the possibility of an enlarged deployment in Kosovo and a new one for Kenya.

Deployment of the combined force for Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan has been held up by political setbacks, mainly from Khartoum, a lack of equipment, in particular transport and attack helicopters needed to police the vast, remote expanses of central Africa.

Some experts note that the European Union will bear the brunt of managing a potential wider Balkan crisis if Kosovo erupts into violence following the expected declaration of independence of the breakaway Serbian province. European troops already make up the bulk of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the bloc is due to take over supervision and running the police from the United Nations.

Kenya is looming as the next crisis likely to need peacekeepers and EU involvement, as, until recent days, it was the anchor of political stability in highly-volatile East Africa. Some 300 people have been killed and 100,000 have been displaced in political unrest after the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki amid widely reported voting irregularities. East Africa and the Horn of Africa constitute a strategically critical region that includes a failed state in Somalia, the defiant and repressive Islamist government of Sudan, insurgency-plagued Uganda, two countries ever poised for war in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and slowly rising Islamic radicalism throughout. Pro-Western Kenya has been pivotal in regional diplomatic initiatives.

In other business, the defense ministers recently adopted the framework for the joint Strategy on Defence Research & Technology, and will be able to move forward on collective investment in technologies central to the military role of the bloc. Jan/08