Unveiling a plan to strengthen the European Union's security and defence policy, Hans-Gert Poettering said at a conference in Berlin that EU funds "should not be ruled out" when it comes to EU co-operation in space.

"We should ask ourselves whether Community funding should not also be made available to cover the temporary provision of European intelligence, communications and route-finding capabilities in support of military and civilian operations, as well as for border security, traffic management and environmental protection," Poettering added.

The EU has already taken a first step in this direction by taking funds from the EU's budget to finance the Galileo navigation system which is intended to rival America's GPS system from 2013, he said.

The European Union is currently involved in 12 peacekeeping, police or observation missions in Georgia, the Balkans, Palestine, Afghanistan and Africa. It also intends to launch an operation to combat pirates operating off the coast of Somalia. It conducted nine other missions between 2003 and 2007.

Poettering's proposal is just one element of a broader plan to develop a common EU security and defence policy.

The project has been given the acronym SAFE -- Synchronised Armed Forces Europe -- and is designed to act as a link between the current situation where national armed forces are only able to work together on a partial basis and "the distance objective of a European army," Poettering said.

To achieve this, he suggested that soldiers engaged in European missions should have a "common statute" -- the same rules of engagement, the same levels of training, the same quality of equipment as well as the same medical care and social security arrangements in the event of death or injury.

"Our soldiers regard the continuing unequal treatment of their colleagues during operations as an obstacle to their success," he said.

He also called on national armed forces to open their doors to soldiers from other EU member states, as the Belgian army has done.

"In future, it should be possible for an Estonian to serve with the French mountain troops, or a Slovenian to fly with the Spanish air force," he said.

Poettering proposed that SAFE should be developed using the EU system of enhanced cooperation that allowed for the creation of the euro or the Schengen zone, which permits the free movement of people between certain member states.

This would enable "neutral or sceptical member states" to decide to become involved only in "individual aspects" of the plan, he added.

"No-one should be forced to join," he said, with an eye on Irish voters who rejected the EU's Lisbon reform treaty partly because they feared Ireland would be made to give up its policy of neutrality.

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