Czech Republic hosts ATHENA Special Committee meeting
On 28 – 29 May 2009, the Czech Republic hosted the working meeting of the ATHENA Special Committee. Working meetings are organised by the Czech Defence Ministry as part of the Czech EU Presidency. The meeting was chaired by Jarmila Madejová from the Defence Policy and Strategy Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic.
The ATHENA Special Committee is a working body of the EU Council which administers the financing of EU military operations. At its working meeting in Prague, the committee discussed the renewal of the mandates of the members of the College of Auditors of the ATHENA financial mechanism. Representatives of the EUFOR Tchad/RCA operation headquarters briefed the committee on the current state of affairs in the transfer of operation infrastructure, facilities and means to the new UN MINURCAT II mission. The working meeting included a visit to the 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade in Žatec, whose units are part of the joint Czech-Slovak EU Battlegroup and are being prepared for deployment to Afghanistan as part of the ISAF mission.
The conditions for setting up a new mechanism for the financing of EU military operations were created by a decision of the EU Council in September 2003. The objective was to make the EU sufficiently flexible to manage the financing of the common costs of military operations regardless of their scope, complexity or urgency. Taking account of these reasons, in February 2004, the EU Council adopted Decision 2004/197/CFSP, establishing a mechanism to administer the financing of the common costs of European Union operations having military or defence implications, which entered into force on 1 March 2004. The mechanism was named after the Greek goddess of victorious war - ATHENA.
The financing mechanism ATHENA is managed under the authority of the Special Committee by an administrator, the commander of the relevant operation and an accountant. The ATHENA Special Committee, which consists of one representative of each participating Member State, approves the budget proposal for the following financial year and proposals for each EU military operation. Each operation commander submits a review of withdrawals from the budget of the relevant operation to the Special Committee every three months. The Special Committee may by its own decision authorise the operation commander to enter into contracts on behalf of the Member States participating in an operation, for acquisition of manpower support, provisions, laundry, drinking water etc. After the conclusion of each operation the ATHENA administrator submits a proposal for the final destination or sale of commonly-funded equipment and infrastructure created by the EU units in the operation area.
“The tradition of the external meetings of the Athena Special Committee was established by the Austrian Presidency in the first half of 2006. Since then all Member States keep up this tradition and the Czech Republic did not want to be an exception in this respect”, stated Jarmila Madejová, who chaired the meeting.
Contact:
- Vladimír Lukovský, Press and Information Service of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic
- tel.: +420 973 200 153, mobile: +420 724 006 780; e-mail: lukovskv@army.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:20
