The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

134 NATIONAL DEFENCE AND EUROPEAN COOPERATIONThe reality of operational demands has somewhat bypassed previous rhetoricalquestions, such as what the ESDP was for and where it might be used.While they illustrate the EU’s strategic ambitions, both in its neighbourhoodand in sub-Saharan Africa, there is no ground for complacency about a multiplicationof these actions because the capability-building process underpinningthe operations remains a much longer-term effort. Ongoing conflicts in suchplaces as Darfur, Sudan, and the reactions of different European states to recentoperational demands in Afghanistan and Iraq have provided reminders of thepolitical and material limits to collective European action.The Headline Goal 2010 and the battle groupsThe Headline Goal 2010The limitations of the Petersberg Tasks as a guiding concept 54 were finallyrecognized in the European Security Strategy, and in November 2003 the EUmember states endorsed a plan to ‘define’ the presently opaque operationaldemands for the EU by June 2004, in a planning framework extending to 2010.The hopes that might have been attached to this new start were, however, soonto be disappointed. Rather than ‘defining’ the Petersberg Tasks, the HeadlineGoal 2010 loosely expanded them.The Headline Goal 2010 was adopted at the June 2004 Brussels EuropeanCouncil, and its essence may be captured in the following statement.Building on the Helsinki Headline and capability goals and recognising that existingshortfalls still need to be addressed, Member States have decided to commit themselvesto be able by 2010 to respond with rapid and decisive action applying a fullycoherent approach to the whole spectrum of crisis management operations covered bythe Treaty on the European Union. This includes humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeepingtasks, tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.As indicated by the European Security Strategy this might also include joint disarmamentoperations, the support for third countries in combating terrorism and securitysector reform. The EU must be able to act before a crisis occurs and preventiveengagement can avoid that a situation deteriorates. The EU must retain the ability toconduct concurrent operations thus sustaining several operations simultaneously atdifferent levels of engagement. 55In order to achieve this new Headline Goal and add further details, a programmewith some specific milestones was identified. The objectives were:(a) to establish during the second half of 2004 a civil–military cell within theEUMS and to establish the capacity to rapidly set up an operation centre shouldthe need arise for certain operations; (b) to establish the European DefenceBosnia by the end of 2004’, European Security Review, no. 23 (July 2004), URL , pp. 1–2.54 Garden, Clarke and Quille (note 16).55 Council of the European Union (note 24), p. 1.