Although EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said, on Tuesday 6 March, that cooperation between the EU and NATO had “never been so good”, the level of cooperation remains poor.
“There is total complementarity and coherence between the work we are doing to strengthen the defence and security of the EU and cooperation between the EU and NATO”, she explained at a press conference after the Defence Council (see EUROPE 11975). “It is no coincidence that our work on defence and security of the EU has never been so strong and EU/NATO cooperation has never been so strong. The two go together”, she added.
According to a European source, during the meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, at least 20 ministers said the objective was not to compete with the Alliance. Some even spoke of “NATO’s European pillar”. Gottemoeller, for her part, used the expression “natural partnership” to describe relations, the High Representative said.
A new declaration of cooperation will be adopted during the NATO summit on 11 and 12 July in Brussels. According to a European source, the declaration should not contain further proposals of cooperation. Both organisations have already reached agreement on 74 concrete actions, but apparently only 12 of those actions are being implemented. “We agreed that it is now time to implement all 74 actions, in principle and as a priority”, Mogherini said (see EUROPE 11920). A third progress report on implementation of the actions will be presented to the Alliance and EU ministers in June.
One source says that the proposals made above all concern exchanges between the personnel of EU and NATO. Also, she added, “there are exercises, coordinated and in parallel but not in common as this is not possible” mainly due to the conflict between the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, and Turkey, which is an ally. Neither is there a general agreement for exchanging certain kinds of information.
EU progress in terms of defence is also a matter of concern for some Allies, especially the Americans, who fear protectionism (see EUROPE 11960). “The EU has no protectionist policy – neither in the field of defence or in other fields (...). On the contrary, we are and we remain attached to an open international trading system”, Mogherini argued. The EU is preparing to adopt retaliatory and safeguard measures if the United States triggers a trade war by taxing steel imports.
Furthermore, implementation of some projects, such as military mobility, could prove complicated. This project which aims to promote military personnel mobility is the subject of a permanent structured cooperation project, which groups 24 of the 25 PESCO countries (apart from Ireland). However, in parallel, the Commission will present a strategy during March on this question, which will therefore concern the 28. Military mobility is also part of the joint cooperation proposals between the EU and NATO. This will lead to “multiplicity of work”, the European source states. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)