NATO and EU sign historic partnership agreement
The EU can finally really develop its Security and Defence Policy by having access to NATO capacities and assets after signing the partnership agreement Monday in NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Monday.
The agreement was concluded in a NATO meeting, attended by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
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The EU will now be allowed to use NATO logistics, including information, and from now on have access to the NATO planning base SHAPE, located in Mons, Belgium. "This is a milestone in the history of relations between NATO and the EU," said Lord Robertson.
The breakthrough came during the Copenhagen Summit last week. Up until then it was either Greece or Turkey who had blocked progress, mainly due to relations with the divided island Cyprus. At the Council, France and Germany were told to put pressure on Turkey to drop its position which it had maintained for the last two years.
The agreement clearly specifies that Europeans will only be present in the areas where NATO has no collective military engagement. The two forces will then be complementary and never competitive, both sides are keen to stress.
Crisis management possible
The EU will now have a stronger capacity for crisis management and can take over the peacekeeping operation Amber-Fox in Macedonia in the coming weeks. The European rapid reaction force (comprising 60,000 people who can be operational within 60 days for more than a year) will also be fully up and running in 2003.
The Bosnia mission, currently run by the NATO force SFOR will be taken over on 1 March next year. With the EU set to take on a bigger role in the Balkans, the US will reduce its presence in the area.