Reykjavik, 15/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the end of a meeting between EU and NATO foreign ministers in Reykjavik Tuesday evening on the fringe of the Ministerial Council of the North Atlantic Council, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and EU Council President Josep Piqué adopted a joint press statement in which they stress in particular that efficient co-operation had been achieved between NATO and the Union in the Balkans (and especially the EU's readiness to take over NATO's Operation "Amber Fox" in Macedonia), and express the hope that the "fruitful consultations between the two organisations" in combating terrorism would continue.
Lord Robertson and Josep Piqué also reaffirm their determination "to consolidate this progress and to finalise all the various aspects of the NATO-EU relationship", but their statement recognises that there remains "work to be done", without mentioning Greece's reservation over the Ankara document settling the problems raised by Turkey over the EU/NATO agreement on the use of Alliance assets for Union-led peacekeeping operations. On this subject, Josep Piqué said that the Spanish Presidency had submitted new proposals to Athens comprising a formal EU declaration, at the highest level, on the use of future European forces "in certain geographic areas", and exchange of letters between the EU and NATO on practical arrangements. "Let's see how to provide sufficient guarantees to the Greek Government (…) without having to change a document (the Ankara document; Ed), which would be an endless process", the Spanish Foreign minister told the press. Furthermore, he stressed the importance of reaching an agreement during the Spanish Presidency, considering that it would be more difficult to do so from July, as it will be Greece which will be chairing the ESDP meetings of the EU (before its own Presidency, in the first half of 2003, it will replace Denmark in these meetings, as the latter has an "opt-out" in defence matters). As for Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou, he simply observed that "we are in the process of negotiating", refusing to speak of a deadlock.