Anyone following the latest rhetoric from Brussels and Paris should first read the 2001 Treaty of Nice and its various annexes. European Defence, as conceived at Saint-Malo in 1998, can only work if it supports, and is supported by NATO. To set up competing structures, plans and commands separate from a collective defence alliance to which 22 EU Member States already belong makes no strategic sense. The key problem for co-operation, concerning Turkey (NATO but not EU) and Cyprus (EU but not NATO) has never been properly tackled and has become even more difficult in recent years.
Anyone following the latest rhetoric from Brussels and Paris should first read the 2001 Treaty of Nice and its various annexes. European Defence, as conceived at Saint-Malo in 1998, can only work if it supports, and is supported by NATO. To set up competing structures, plans and commands separate from a collective defence alliance to which 22 EU Member States already belong makes no strategic sense. The key problem for co-operation, concerning Turkey (NATO but not EU) and Cyprus (EU but not NATO) has never been properly tackled and has become even more difficult in recent years.