madam president baroness ashton will not be surprised if i express disappointment not in the performance of the european common security and defence policy csdp but in the fact that she still insists on flogging this particular unnecessary and very expensive dead horse
she may claim that the european union has been engaged in some twenty-five missions with a csdp label
well it is all about the label few of these missions stand up to scrutiny
they are either missions better performed by nato straightforward civilian missions or they are passive missions involving military personnel
they have usually come about because the european union has begged somebody to invite it to do something
currently there are military operations being conducted by nato in libya
having failed to get a mandate to enforce the maritime embargo the eu has been desperately trying to get the un to invite it to carry out a humanitarian assistance programme
the fact is that neither nato nor the un wants the eu pretending to get involved militarily
of course there is a great need for humanitarian assistance and the eu could play a useful role but not in a way that merely seeks to promote a misplaced military ambition
the trouble is that the very existence of the csdp and all its duplicative structures is divisive and encourages allies to think twice about robust commitment to nato operations
