Pirate attacks on EU ships, which carry valuable resources, are becoming a significant emerging threat to the EU and its well-being, according to a panel of experts.

"There is not enough urgency, insufficient cooperation, weak coordination and inadequate commitment" surrounding the threat of maritime piracy in the Gulf of Aden, said Sandro Calvani, director of the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute at the Madariaga College of Europe Foundation.

Indeed, piracy off the coast of Somalia has prompted no fewer than four meetings of the U.N. Security Council in the second half of 2008. Over the whole of 2008, there were 120 acts of piracy in those waters. Overall, $150 million has been paid in ransoms for hostages taken there. To that effect, the European Council launched its first-ever maritime military mission to alleviate the problem.

"I think this is the first time we've seen all five permanent members of the Security Council actually have military forces operating in the same geographical region and to the same end," said Cmdr. Snowy Lintern, liaison officer of the force.

But he pointed out that their five ships in theater are scarce. "The density of traffic is 250 ships per day," said Lintern. "Three thousand small boats are engaged in fishing off the coast of Somalia, and all of these 3,000 small boats are exactly the same vessels as the pirates use. So being able to identify which ones are pirates and which ones aren't is a problem for us."

The five ships did manage to safely escort a dozen or so World Food Program ships into the Somali harbor, which allowed 1.5 million people to be fed. That in and of itself could serve to lessen piracy, as it is largely a product of the dire poverty of the Somali population. But escorting ships throws up other issues.

"If you're escorting two or three ships per day, you're ignoring the other 247 that also have a requirement for protection," said Lintern. "We look to protect them all as opposed to just the EU-flagged ships."

The five EU ships could soon be backed up by four more EU ships, but the area of operations remains vast and the ships are of little use merely as a deterrent. India, Russia, the United States, Malaysia and China also have ships in theater, while Turkey is planning to send one.

"Pirates don't have very sophisticated surveillance," explained Lintern. "Their ships are sometimes no more than four feet high, making range of eyes about six or seven miles, so if you're not very close to them they're not going to see you."

Another issue is prosecution. Although the naval force can legally defend itself when in danger of being attacked and can search for and confiscate arms in order to disrupt piracy as well as stage rescue missions for hostages -- although this is extremely rare -- the few pirates who are apprehended are seldom brought to justice.

"Few states have ratified anti-piracy and prosecution and punishment of pirates conventions such as UNCLOS (the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea) and the SUA (Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation) convention," explained Emanuele de Rosa, a maritime security expert at the European Commission. In fact, only three or four EU member states have legislation to prosecute pirates in their home countries.

"It's happened a couple of times where the U.S. and, currently, the Danes have pirates aboard their warships, which have been captured, for three to six months while they found out if they're going to be able to prosecute them or not. And often they're not and simply released back into Somalian territory," said Lintern.

Progress has been made on the informational front, however. Through observation, the EU naval force has gathered sufficient information to offer sea merchants useful advice for safe passage. "It's fairly obvious that the pirates running out of Somalia and Yemen enjoy illicit not only activity but substance as well, and we find that sunrise until about midday is the most dangerous point," says Lintern. "They don't attack at night, because they haven't got the capability to do that, and from midday onwards they've been so busy chewing (the drug) khat in the morning that in actual fact their ability to attack after lunchtime is significantly reduced."

Of the approximately 1,500 shipping companies and travelers who have registered for advice with the EU naval force on its Web site, all have passed through the strait safely, the naval force claims.

But while the EU naval force has made it clear that its mandate does not extend to Somali territory -- although they have permission to enter Somali waters to combat counter-piracy -- de Rosa stressed that establishing an effective state in Somalia is paramount.

"Increased stability on the Horn of Africa is important for all of Europe," he said. "Although the statement about piracy off the Somali coast recently delivered by the new chairman of the African Union, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, could be an alarming signal."

Libyan leader Gadhafi condoned piracy off the Somali coast in a recent speech, saying it was merely an act of self-defense against the greed of Western nations. What he ignored is that the boats of the World Food Program, which serve to feed the very Somali children who Gadhafi claims are being robbed by greed, are the ones most often pirated on their way into the country.

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