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THE COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY
This is a European warship conducting security operations in this area.
If you observe any suspicious or illegal activity or require assistance, call on channel 16.
It's the early 2000s
and Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden are terrorising international shipping
and jeopardising the supply of vital food aid to Somalia.
The increasing threat at sea combined with the humanitarian disaster on land
places the EU in a tough position: to act or not to act.
Intensive consultation at national and European level
results in EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta,
the first naval mission ever undertaken by the EU.
The main challenges were, of course,
embracing the European Union's first maritime mission
against a very difficult adversary
and how to bring that together a very long way from Europe
and sustain that operation through a considerable period of time.
One aspect of EU NAVFOR's mandate is to protect vulnerable ships and vessels
carrying humanitarian aid from pirate attacks.
But with up to 5,000 ships a month transiting the Gulf of Aden
and an area of operations one-and-a-half times the size of Europe,
this is no easy task.
The key to success is teamwork.
We work very closely in partnership with NATO who have a force out there
and the Combined Maritime Force based in Bahrain.
It's been one of the most interesting operations
in that it has brought exceptional cooperation,
the sort of cooperation I don't think could happen on land but has been available to us at sea.
With several warships operating together under the EU NAVFOR flag,
the number of attacks has reduced dramatically.
Atalanta is probably the most outstanding success story of CSDP,
but fighting pirates at sea is not enough.
We have to do something about the root causes.
People become pirates not because it's romantic but because it's a good business,
so we need to open new perspectives for the country.
With tactical success at sea, the next challenge,
together with the African Union's Mission to Somalia,
is to strengthen Somalia's embryonic army to counter the threat of Al-Shabaab.
A huge task for the EU military training mission for Somalia.
When in 2007 the African Union conceived AMISOM as a peace mission for Somalia,
few people came knocking on the door.
Only the European Union believed in it
and invested in it through the EUTM training programme,
which has trained more than 3,000 Somali fighters for us.
This is a country that has been without a functioning state for 22 years,
so we should not expect that things would be easy.
But we have a new momentum and energy to move forward.
The EU Training Mission was outside Somalia before.
Now they are relocated in Somalia
and they are going to train the Somalis inside Somalia.
In a region devastated by two decades of civil war,
security needs are as pressing as social and economic ones.
So the only effective response is a comprehensive approach.
It was very obvious we needed a cohesive, coherent approach
if we were going to help the Somali people realise their ambitions.
Since then we've brought the full support of the European Union
to Somalia and to the wider region.
And I want to assure the Somalian people that we will stand with them for the future.
What's important to understand is the European Union's ability
to begin to amalgamate the various strengths it has.
These are humanitarian, it is developmental, it is now security.
This is the Union beginning to give clout to what it claims to be.
Building on the successes of EU NAVFOR and the training mission to Somalia,
in 2012 the EU launches EUCAP Nestor,
the first capacity-building mission with a truly regional approach.
It's to allow five countries in the region of the Horn of Africa
to control their maritime areas in order to prevent piracy in particular.
It's to bring in laws, and also to work in the maritime area,
i.e. to develop coastguard services or navies that are able to control this area fully.
These are the tracks. These are the different ships passing through the corridor.
Frédéric Pasquier is an experienced French gendarme
embedded in the Djiboutian coastguard.
His task is to help train this incipient force.
They still need training, equipment, practical experience.
The European Union can share know-how,
while taking into account their own needs and their own way of working.
Like the coastguard, the navy is also in strong need of support.
Today the arrival of the Spanish warship Meteoro
provides the best platform for a joint navy / coastguard diving exercise.
Now we are going to review the diving equipment that we have on board.
Every time when a ship goes to a jetty or to a pier
we inspect the jetty itself to see if there is any suspicious object
and then if the ship is in harbour we inspect also the hull
in order to see if there is any threat to the hull or any damage.
Another important task of EUCAP Nestor
is to help the countries in the Horn of Africa strengthen their laws
to be able to fight piracy and other crimes on the high seas,
such as illegal fisheries and trafficking.
We are working in post-conflict societies
and one of the first priorities is to make police and justice work again.
In the aftermath of the Balkan wars,
Member States realised the need for the EU to act as a security provider,
laying the foundations for Europe's Common Security and Defence Policy.
CSDP was born out of frustration.
We saw that we were not effective enough.
At the same time it was our backyard. So that was the realisation in the mid-'90s.
And then it gave a very important impulse to the development of a new policy.
That was then written down in the treaties and implemented as of 2003 in the field.
A decade later, the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy
has a proven track record of success
in both military operations and civilian crisis management.
The challenge now is to sustain this position in the light of changing threats
and shrinking budgets.
If you look at all the operations over the last 10 years,
you can see that the Europeans, the armed forces of the EU countries, are extremely present.
But for all that, the situation which we are now in is forcing us to go further.
If Europe is to reap the full benefit
of its Common Defence and Security Policy,
it's also necessary that Europeans invest sufficiently in robust military capabilities.
We have our limits in terms of sustainability,
in terms of complexity of military operations.
That's why we try to improve our capabilities,
particularly in the area of air-to-air refuelling, of strategic airlifts.
By pooling and sharing our resources in terms of material, people,
EU Battlegroups and the specific niches where we used to be lacking,
we will make a huge leap forward.
We spend 200 billion euros a year on defence in the European Union.
So if I turn that into a challenge and an opportunity,
I think we really have to do more now to try and work collectively.
Strengthening Europe's military muscle by pooling and sharing key resources
may also boost its economy.
Defence is undeniably a motor for growth.
It also creates highly-skilled jobs.
So the defence sector is often responsible for technological innovations
which support a whole economic sector.
In maximising synergies between civilian and military operations in the Horn of Africa,
the EU has contributed positively to the stability of a region ravaged by war and poverty.
But in the face of increasing security challenges in the world,
how will the EU's role as a provider of security evolve in the future?
We will be wherever we'll be needed.
CSDP is demand-driven.
We engage in countries and regions where we can make a difference,
but of course we have to be well-prepared to react.
The potential is there. We just need to make sure we can use it.
European Union EXTERNAL ACTION