Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU strikes deal with NATO on security and defence

The EU will now have access to NATO military assets for its operations after both sides managed to reach a long sought-after agreement at the Copenhagen summit. This agreement will give added support to the EU when it takes over the NATO Amber Fox peace-keeping mission in Macedonia in mid-2003.

On Monday, EU and NATO ambassadors are set to meet in Brussels to finalise the agreement which is set to be put in place by March 2003. This agreement will enable the implementation of the so-called Berlin plus arrangement, allowing the EU use of NATO assets for its operations.

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The Secretary General of the Council Javier Solana, who was confident that an agreement would be reached on Friday, said that the EU – NATO relations have moved a further step. "Copenhagen will be remembered for many things, also for this one," he said.

Mention of military operations

The EU leaders in Copenhagen invited the relevant EU bodies to finalise work on the overall approach to the operation in Macedonia, including development of military options. The European Council also indicated the Union’s willingness to lead a military operation in Bosnia following SFOR (a stabilisation force run by the Alliance,) after consultations with the Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities, NATO and other international players. The Council is expected to review this after February 2003.

Cyprus and Malta: no say on NATO assets

Part of the decision between the two sides says that "the NATO EU strategy cooperation and the implementation of the Berlin Plus will be confined to NATO members and those non-NATO EU members that have subscribed to the Partnership for Peace framework programme." This means that from the 10 new acceding states, Cyprus and Malta will not have a say in the use of NATO assets, although they would still be able to decide on issues related to European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Malta, a neutral country, had withdrawn its application from the Partnership for Peace agreement, and Cyprus is in the process of putting in place arrangements which would lead to a demilitarisation of the island.

The declaration annexed to the Copenhagen Council conclusions states that Malta and Cyprus would only have access to EU classified information provided it "does not contain or refer to any classified NATO information".

Agreement based on Brussels Council conclusions

The NATO discussions on Friday, which led to an agreement late in the evening, were focused on the EU proposal agreed during the Brussels summit on 24 and 25 October. The EU leaders had decided to enable non-EU European Allies, like Turkey, to raise its concerns if an EU operation is conducted in its geographic proximity or if it risks affecting its national security interests.

EU ready for military operations within weeks

The European Union will start its first military operations within "weeks", the French President, Jacques Chirac, said after the EU summit in Copenhagen. Following a landmark agreement between NATO and the EU, the Union will for the first time deploy its own soldiers, in the Balkan republic of Macedonia, possibly by February. European troops already make up the majority of the 17,000-strong S-For peacekeeping force in Bosnia, but it is still under NATO command. A EU police mission takes over from the UN in Bosnia on 1 January.

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