Brussels, 20/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The first meeting of the European Union's interim Political and Security Committee (COPSi), and NATO's Permanent Council, at EU Council Headquarters on 19 September, allowed members to discuss issues dealt with by four EU/NATO working groups, on progress already made and progress to be accomplished in the coming weeks, COPSi Chairman, Ambassador Michel Duclos, told the press. (You may recall that the four working groups are on: security issues; EU access to the Alliance's military assets; cooperation on the asset objectives (Headline Goal) decided at the Helsinki Summit of December 1999; and permanent arrangements between the EU and NATO.
Tuesday's meeting demonstrated that there was "broad convergence" and "agreement on the political framework in which everything is unfolding", said Duclos, stressing that they had moved from a period when the two institutions did not speak to each other to a period where "contacts are finally being formed", in a "spirit of cooperation, partnership, equality and respect of decisions taken". "We now agree on the methods, which comprise an intensification of contacts on concrete subjects in the weeks and months to come", he added. Regarding the six non-EU members of NATO, including Turkey which is obviously the one showing most concern, Mr. Duclos pointed out that the French Presidency had convened, for immediately after the capabilities commitment conference of 20 November, a conference with the defence ministers of these six countries (without forgetting meetings at expert level that will be held in the meantime, and which will enable them to be briefed on the work of the EU. The Turkish Ambassador to NATO expressed his "satisfaction" at this way of proceeding.
In his address at Tuesday's meeting, the High Representative for Cfsp, Javier Solana placed special emphasis on the fact that the Union's work on capabilities had "benefited from NATO's input": "We shall continue to wish to draw on this expertise as we work to deliver our Helsinki commitments", as "we simply cannot achieve this task alone", he said, Mr. Solana noted that the question of strategic capabilities (and the improvements required, especially in matters of command and control, intelligence and transport) had still to be "explored in great depth", and that "this will be a long-term project". Some Member States have already announced major procurements in the field of strategic transport, but much remain to be done in other fields, and "we shall want to work together closely to ensure coherence with the Alliance's own Defence Capabilities Initiative", he said, hoping that the EU could begin work on these issues within the coming weeks. As for relations with the six non-EU member Allies, Solana said that the "special session on capabilities immediately after our own capabilities commitment conference", would enable the EU to "formally recognise the generous offers of forces made by many of you here". Regarding crisis management procedures, Mr. Solana told his interlocutors that they would be fully briefed "once the member States have had a chance to digest the material" prepared by the bodies of the Esdp, and, stressing that the EU was aiming to take a "global approach to crisis management", and that its "greatest asset is the range of instruments" at its disposal, he specified: "So, while we have looked to NATO and the WEU for ideas, they do not provide all the answers. We cannot simply replicate the arrangements of the WEU, we have to craft something much more sophisticated that combines military and non-military approaches to a crisis".
Speaking to the press, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson stressed that this "significant" and "historic" meeting was but the beginning of a process. "Two key strategic players are now getting together", and there will be other meetings at the same level, based on "the principle of openness and transparency", he declared. The European project (of security and defence) will have the effect that "a stronger Europe contributes to a stronger NATO", which "will remain the cornerstone of security in Europe", the Secretary General concluded.