NATO HQ 6 Dec. 2000

Declaration of Herbert Scheibner, Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Austria at the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at Defense Minister Level Mr. Chairman, Colleagues: We are very pleased that in regard of Yugoslavia an important step from isolation towards stabilization and peace in the region could now be achieved by the decisions just taken in Vienna. Nevertheless, apart from such developments, further efforts especially in the field of solidarity are required to demonstrate the willingness to establish a complete restoration of stability. Besides the required military efforts, the consolidation of civil management in the whole region will be indispensable. Especially the case of the Kosovo demonstrates, that, after the overall situation will show an improvement, a well working civil crisis management will be the main task for a long time to come. The recent experiences in the Kosovo also indicated how important the cooperation with the various organizations are, especially the ones which work in the field of security policy. The events in Bosnia and in the Kosovo force us to draw and to implement the necessary lessons to be prepared for future challenges. Successful crisis management will only be possible, if it based on a quick and extensive evaluation of the military dimension. Austria contributes to the peacekeeping at the Balkans since 1995 and participates in the recent operation in that region, as well. About 500 troops are deployed within the framework of the Multinational Brigade South, which operates as a part of KFOR for maintaining peace in the Kosovo. We have adapted our forces in KFOR to the operational modalities and local requirements to obtain the needed flexibility. Mr. Chairman, Within the given framework and possibilities, Austria will also in the future participate with troops in the current KFOR operation in the Balkans. Since it was established, the Partnership for Peace went through a dynamic development. Let me therefore express my congratulation to all those, who made all this possible, either by establishing the aspired goals or by working countless hours and solving of all the details. For a similar positive balance in the future - concerning the enhancement of the interoperability - within the framework of EMOP, some further effort will be required. To guarantee the preconditions of the interoperability, the extended and adapted PARP is significant for us, because this process is especially relevant for the framework of the Partnership for Peace as well as on the European level. We therefore welcome the current developments, which make use of the PARP as a planning mechanism for forces of non-allied EU-countries. In my opinion, this process represents essential relations between the NATO and the efforts of the EU to contribute forces for future crisis response operations, without resulting in unwanted duplications. This unifies the Euro-Atlantic and the European efforts and improves the interoperability of our forces. The objective of an enhanced interoperability for NATO-led PfP operations as well as for crisis management operations within the framework of the ESDP requires harmonization of the planning goals. In this process we would like to see a higher degree of transparency within the framework of DCI, so that also Non-NATO states, but member-states of the EU, would have access to relevant areas of the planning and can work better on the required standardization of the forces. We intend to adapt our forces for international operations for future challenges of possible crisis management operations. The Austrian contribution will contain a total of 3500 troops, of which 2000 troops will simultaneously be ready for the whole spectrum of crisis response operations. This is the reason why we focus our efforts primarily on the quick implementation of these forces. Mr. Chairman, Besides Austria´s engagement and because of our concern for the further development of Europe, we will continue to work for the realization of the initiatives of the Partnership for Peace. In times of limited resources I consider this to be an excellent opportunity to consolidate and to complete our efforts. The aim must be, by avoiding any unwanted duplication, to achieve a meaningful allocation of resources, and by doing so to improve our capabilities to react to any kind of crisis.