The breakthrough will give EU military officers formal access to resources and experts from Nato, allowing them to refine military requirements needed to create a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force and to assess any shortfalls in capability. It also means that Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, may meet its June target when it hopes to present an analysis on member states' military priorities which, say defence experts, cannot be done without close co-operation with Nato. If we want to identify our shortfalls and redefine our requirements, then we need qualitative analysis which only Nato can provide.
Turkey officially denies it blocked such co-operation.
However, Onur Oymen, Turkey's ambassador to Nato, confirmed that his government claimed more participation rights in EU operations than currently on offer. At the heart of the dispute is the EU's access to Nato assets. Since January, when Sweden took over the presidency, formal consultations between EU and Nato military expert teams were blocked by Ankara. Called the Helsinki Task Force, these teams had met under the previous French presidency for two weeks each month to focus on military capability. The following June, at the Feira summit in Portugal, the EU's new political and security committee set out to establish permanent arrangements with Nato.