POLITCS-EU: US Ties Override Defence Divide

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Oct 22 2003 (IPS) - Relations between the United States and the European Union remain "close and fully transparent" despite EU plans to boost its military capacity independent of NATO, top officials here say.

Relations between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU) came under the microscope Tuesday evening (Oct. 21) when EU representatives met NATO officials to discuss plans to boost EU military capability.

The meeting assessed what it would mean for NATO if the EU goes ahead with plans for an autonomous defence capacity.

The United States was seeking reassurance that defence plans under a new EU constitution would not undermine the transatlantic alliance.

The United States and some of the 15 member states of the EU are uneasy about proposals by the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to set up a European military planning centre outside Brussels.

There is already a Europe Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF), but the latest proposals would give a European army the means to plan and carry out missions independent of NATO.

EU High Representative Javier Solana, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and the EU’s Political and Security Committee (PSC) Chairman, Maurizio Melani told media representatives that the meeting had been a success and that relations between the two bodies were stronger than ever.

Robertson said the two organisations would continue to "inform each other of their actions" and "work alongside each other in a complementary manner."

He said: "We want to avoid duplication of duties between NATO and the EU.. The EU-NATO relationship is extremely good at the moment and we believe this can get better."

At a meeting in Berlin last month the leaders of Europe’s ‘big three’ – France, Germany and Britain – agreed on a joint paper which sketches plans for the new initiative.

The joint paper stated that the EU "should be endowed with a joint capacity to plan and conduct operations without recourse to NATO resources and capabilities. Our goal remains to achieve such a planning and implementation capacity either in consensus with the 25 member states, but also in a circle of interested partners."

Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, insisted that the EU would continue to develop its defence plan, but said it would also benefit NATO.

"The European Union needs to have military capabilities, nobody doubts that," he said. "The EU will continue to strengthen its defence policy but this will not harm the EU-NATO relationship because it is not built solely on defence."

Solana added: "Relations between the European Union and NATO are basic relations and nobody wants to damage that profound relationship. A stronger EU defence policy would actually strengthen NATO. If the EU’s defence policy is stronger, NATO’s defence would also be stronger as many of the EU’s member states are also part of NATO."

Tuesday’s meeting followed a council of NATO ambassadors on Monday where U.S. and NATO officials discussed the issue.

The matter has come to a head after European leaders met in Rome last week to discuss EU plans for an independent military role. Leaders at the EU Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) Oct. 16 and 17 tried to agree to a definition of the EU’s defence commitments under the new EU constitution.

A solution is urgently needed, because defence is one of several contentious areas of EU policy that has to be defined in the forthcoming EU constitution.

Senior U.S. officials have earlier criticised the proposal, saying that an independent EU planning and command headquarters is unacceptable. U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said in statement last week that a defence project outside the Alliance was "the most significant threat to NATO’s future."

In spite of U.S. fears over the EU’s defence palns, a NATO spokesman told IPS that the atmosphere at the meeting was very good and that "we all agreed that nobody is trying to harm NATO."

The EU’s first-ever peacekeeping operation was launched in March in the ex- Yugoslav republic of Macedonia following a NATO mission. The EU also sent troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year.