France to push for EU rapid reaction force

Description: When the next negotiations on the multi-annual European Union budget are launched, the bloc's members will have to decide how much money they want to put towards "soft power" abroad, such as trade and humanitarian aid, and how effectively they can develop hard power - armed men. An EU military is high up on the agenda of the French EU presidency in the second half of 2008. France wants to improve common European military capacity. It wants to press ahead with the EU's own rapid reaction force, which the leaders made a headline goal in 1999, to be equipped with autonomous headquarters, pooled material and satellite intelligence. Talking in this report are: 0:44 Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, in English 1:58 MEP Karl von WOGAU (PPE-DE, DE), in French 3:24 Hervé MORIN, French Minister of Defence, in French 4:04 Victoria NULAND, US Ambassador to NATO, in English 4:36 Bogdan KLICH, Polish Minister of Defence, in Polish 5:32 Hervé MORIN, French Minister of Defence, in French 6:03 Nicole GNESOTTO, French expert on defence and military issues, former Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU-ISS), in French. This programme was made available by the European Parliament.