14/12/2018 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 14 December, the European Council welcomed the "significant progress" made in recent months in the field of security and defence. In their view, all the EU's latest initiatives - permanent structured cooperation, military mobility, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, the European Defence Fund and the Civilian CSDP Compact (see EUROPE 12158) - "contribute to increasing the EU's strategic autonomy and capacity to act as a security provider, while complementing and reinforcing the activities of NATO and strengthening EU-NATO cooperation". This must be done "in full respect of the principles of inclusiveness, reciprocity and decision-making autonomy of the EU", EU leaders stress. An earlier draft of the conclusions did not refer to these principles of EU inclusiveness, reciprocity and autonomy (CG)