WRITTEN QUESTION E-0334/03

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Council

(10 February 2003)

Subject: NATO enlargement and the European Union's defence policy

The summit of heads of state and government of the 19 NATO countries held in Prague on 21/22 November 2002 in the presence of the leaders of the organisation's 27 partner countries meeting in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council was primarily concerned with two fundamental issues: upgrading NATO's strategic capabilities and the enlargement of NATO, three years after the accession of the first three former Soviet bloc members.

The need to overhaul the North Atlantic Alliance's political and strategic structure arises from the proliferation of potential sources of instability and insecurity (in contrast with the Soviet threat which previously predominated) and the extension of the tasks entrusted to NATO by the Strategic Concept of 1991 and 1999, which included opposition to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and action to combat international terrorism and organised crime. It appears from the results achieved in Prague that the North Atlantic Alliance is still the political and military linchpin of Europe's new security, even if the summit did not succeed in solving all the outstanding political and institutional issues to be resolved by the Alliance.

Can the Council answer the following:

1. Does it regard NATO as an alliance in the traditional sense, or as a new and more effective system of collective security in embryo?

2. Within NATO, how are relations between the European Union and the United States progressing and developing?

3. In military terms, what will be the relationship between European Union's Rapid Reaction Force and NATO's Response Force, given that 17 of the 19 NATO states are European?

4. What role is played by the WEU in this connection?

5. Is it conceivable that the enhanced cooperation approach could give the participating countries the effectiveness required to ensure an autonomous defence policy?

Reply

(21 July 2003)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that evaluating the nature or the effectiveness of another international organisation such as NATO does not lie within the Council's sphere of competence, and that relations between the European Union and the United States are the subject of a direct bilateral dialogue, which is ongoing and at all levels, in the context of the New Transatlantic Agenda.

Similarly, the Council would point out that the States which are members of both NATO and the EU may declare their forces for one or the other or for both. Units intended for rapid reaction may be declared for both organisations, and if necessary put into action according to their own procedures.

As concerns the Rapid Reaction Elements of the EU, the Council agreed to task its preparatory bodies and to finalise work as soon as possible on the basis of the following general principles:

- reaction within 5 to 30 days or less;

- streamlining of crisis management procedures according to the operational requirements of rapid response;

- advance planning based on illustrative scenarios;

- specific identification of rapid response elements in the Headline Force Catalogue;

- modalities for the use of the agreed framework nation concept and other concepts as may be agreed.

In accordance with the conclusions of the European Council in Nice on 7, 8 and 9 December 2000 and of the meeting of the WEU Council of Ministers in Marseilles on 13 November 2000, the Council adopted decisions of principle on the inclusion by the EU of the appropriate functions in the field of the Petersberg tasks.

The Treaty of Nice introduced a new Article 27(b) into the Treaty on European Union, stipulating that the enhanced cooperation established by the Treaty shall not relate to matters having military or defence implications. The examination of any modification to these provisions would in any event fall within the remit of the current proceedings of the Convention on the future of Europe.