Athena | Athena mechanism | mechanism to administer the financing of the common costs of European Union operations having military or defence implications

22. Acknowledges that military operations are financed by the Member States outside the EU budget and that their common costs are covered by the Athena mechanism; underlines that Athena is crucial to the deployment of those operations and is an instrument of solidarity between Member States, encouraging them, especially those lacking financial and operational resources, to contribute to CSDP operations; regrets, however, that the actual proportion of the common costs remains very low (estimated at approximately 10-15 % of all costs) and that the high proportion of nation-borne costs and responsibilities in military operations based on ...[+++]the ‘costs lie where they fall’ principle is counter to the principles of solidarity and burden-sharing, and further deters Member States from taking an active part in CSDP operations; is worried that this state of affairs, especially in the context of the Member States’ lack of willingness to participate in the operations’ force generation, hampers the rapid deployment of CSDP operations and jeopardises their overall efficiency; believes that the long-term financing of military missions should be ensured;

23. Acknowledges that military operations are financed by the Member States outside the EU budget and that their common costs are covered by the Athena mechanism; underlines that Athena is crucial to the deployment of those operations and is an instrument of solidarity between Member States, encouraging them, especially those lacking financial and operational resources, to contribute to CSDP operations; regrets, however, that the actual proportion of the common costs remains very low (estimated at approximately 10-15 % of all costs) and that the high proportion of nation-borne costs and responsibilities in military operations based on ...[+++]the ‘costs lie where they fall’ principle is counter to the principles of solidarity and burden-sharing, and further deters Member States from taking an active part in CSDP operations; is worried that this state of affairs, especially in the context of the Member States’ lack of willingness to participate in the operations’ force generation, hampers the rapid deployment of CSDP operations and jeopardises their overall efficiency; believes that the long-term financing of military missions should be ensured;

23. Deplores, in this context, that the review of the Athena mechanism, which was due to be carried out by the end of 2014, has produced only very limited results, such as the organisation of a form of pre-financing of certain costs to speed up deployment; regrets that the Council did not reach an agreement on the inclusion of funding for the cost of the strategic deployment of EU battlegroups in the list of common costs systematically borne by Athena, only adopting instead a renewable decision for a two-year period; calls on the next European Council on Defence to consider a further expansion of the common costs eligible under Athena, ...[+++] such as the automatic financing of expenditure on CSDP operational and mission deployment (infrastructure for the accommodation of forces, expenses relating to the establishment of points of entry for troops into theatres of operations and security stocks of food and fuel where necessary);

C. whereas the European Council of December 2013 decided to examine the financial aspects of EU missions and operations, including the review of the Athena mechanism, in order to ensure procedures and rules that enable the Union to be faster, more flexible and efficient in the deployment of EU civilian missions and military operations;