On Thursday 3 June, the EU Council acknowledged the sixth progress report on the implementation of the 74 common cooperation proposals approved in 2016 and 2017, which stresses that the European Union and NATO continue to strengthen their partnership.
The 23-page report outlines the progress made between June 2020 and May 2021, with 2021 being the 5th anniversary of the Warsaw Declaration of 8 July 2016.
“Over the past five years, the EU and NATO have made unprecedented progress in their long-standing partnership”, the report says. And over the past year, the two organisations have continued to consolidate their mutually reinforcing strategic partnership.
According to the document, “in a rapidly evolving strategic context, and despite the difficulties related to the health crisis”, policy dialogue has continued at all levels and in all forms.
The various exchanges between the EU and NATO, and between their respective members, “have highlighted several cross-cutting issues which are relevant to the common set of proposals, and which are becoming particularly relevant to both organisations”. They could be the subject of an “enhanced political dialogue”, the report states. In particular, it refers to resilience, emerging and disruptive technologies, crisis management, the impact of climate change on security and defence, and increased strategic competition.
The report recalls that for the 74 proposals to be truly successful, NATO and EU Member States must remain fully engaged and committed to the process.
“NATO and the EU are engaged in a process of reflection to define their strategic directions and objectives for the coming years. In this context, they have a unique opportunity to work, while fully respecting each other’s decision-making autonomy, towards greater coherence and cooperation in appropriate areas, to the benefit of their members and Euro-Atlantic security”, concludes the report.
Read the report: https://bit.ly/3wQWR9q (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)