Boat Bombing: the "Humanitarian" Mission Impossible?

EU Member States have agreed on a naval mission to target the networks of people smugglers in the Mediterranean - a victory for the EU High Representative (Mogherini), who notes that the decision was made in record time. The mission will be run out of Rome by an Italian admiral and will include intelligence gathering on the smugglers' networks, "detection and inspection" of smugglers boats and, if granted UN authority, the destruction of the boats.

 

It may be a great victory for Federica Mogherini to have steered this decision through so quickly, but it sounds like a humanitarian policy by way of Michael Bay: lots of warships and action, but hardly much depth. What drives people to make this desperate crossing goes beyond smugglers' networks. These refugees hand over their savings to the smugglers because so much of Africa and the Middle East is in chaos, meaning that smugglers can afford to lose the dingy boats they send them off on in the first place. Neither government in Libya seems to be enthusiastic about the EU plan, and the BBC reports that local communities and the Libyan coastguard may be involved in these networks - how will this essentially military mission deal with situations where the networks aren't staffed by bad guys drawn from Hollywood blockbusters?

 

The smuggling is a key part of the current problem, but its only part of it. With the EU's near abroad in flames, does it have a strategy to deal with the breakdown of states in its neighbourhood?

 

It's a bit much to expect a new Neighbourhood Policy over-night to deal with these crises, but there doesn't seem to be much indication of trying to muster political will for such ideas, never mind much planning. The current Neighbourhood Policy, with its Union for the Mediterranean and Eastern Partnership, looks like it was created for a bygone age with Libya and Syria in flames and a proxy war in Ukraine.

 

Now that the Commission's asylum quota appears to have lost any traction it might have had, this naval mission could be the only common policy on this crisis. This is a real danger because it doesn't actually help solve the problem; at best, it just manages the symptoms. It's not hard to imagine that over time countries will slowly withdraw their support for the mission as a drain on resources, and the whole mess will re-assert itself. We should not be satisfied with mission, but start working on the difficult and long term issue of helping the countries in our neighbourhood build stable and open institutions and prospering economies.

Juncker’s Euro Army: A Weapon of Mass Distraction?

Commission President Juncker has advocated a European army in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt:

“"Eine solche Armee würde uns helfen, eine gemeinsame Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik zu gestalten und gemeinsam die Verantwortung Europas in der Welt wahrzunehmen", sagte Juncker. Mit einer eigenen Armee, so der Luxemburger weiter, könnte Europa glaubwürdig auf eine Bedrohung des Friedens in einem Mitgliedsland oder in einem EU-Nachbarland reagieren. So könne man Russland den Eindruck vermitteln, "dass wir es ernst meinen mit der Verteidigung der Werte der Europäischen Union".”

“”Such an army would help us to shape a common foreign and security policy and to take the common responsibility of Europe in the world seriously,” said Juncker.  With its own army, the Luxembourger continued, Europe could credibly react to threats to the peace in Member States or in the European Neighbourhood.  That way Russia would be given the impression “that we take the defence of EU values seriously.”” [Own Translation]

Given that the interview was mostly focused on the Eurozone crisis and economic questions, it was strange of Juncker to raise the issue of a European army, which isn’t exactly on anyone’s agenda at the moment. Member States already co-operate on defence to some degree through the European Battlegroups, and co-operate on common missions such as Operation Atalanta, which tackles piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Integrating defence is obviously a sensitive issue, and there is a lot that can be done in co-ordinating research, earmarking troops for joint battlegroups for peacekeeping missions, and a better division of labour. However, a Euro Army is a mad fantasy without a greater level of democratic coherence in the EU and a better consensus on how to act on foreign policy. I daresay everyone realises this, and Juncker knows this, so the EU army remark comes across as a silly distraction, even if it’s one that can effectively generate headlines.