Defence and Aerospace special report: In an uncertain world it’s crucial that NATO and the EU stand together

Date: 18/10/01

By Lord Robertson Secretary-General of NATO

September 11 was a defining day in history. It is already clear that this new kind of terrorism, and the struggle against it, will reshape the security environment. Traditional alliances and traditional security arrangements will have to be re-examined to ensure that they still serve to enhance the safety and security of the international community.

Even in such a moment of change, however, one traditional pillar of Euro-Atlantic security remains as important as it has ever been. Indeed, if anything, last month's events have reinforced the logic, and the importance, of the NATO-EU relationship.

NATO-EU cooperation in the Balkans illustrates clearly the practical value of these relations. Building stable, multi-ethnic states is the best insurance against terrorism emerging in the first place. Afghanistan is a safe haven for terrorists precisely because it does not have a viable state structure. It is a 'black hole'. We are in the Balkans to prevent such 'black holes' from emerging right at our doorstep.

Cooperation between NATO and the EU has been a crucial element of our success in the Balkans until now. In Bosnia and Kosovo, for example, NATO has been providing the secure environment in which the EU, along with other international organisations, has been helping to create a self-sustaining civil society and working economy.

In our efforts to defuse the problems in the Presevo Valley in Southern Serbia, the Alliance provided for the security of the EU monitors in the Ground Safety Zone, where the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia could not meet its responsibilities for their security. This is another good example of how NATO and the EU can work together to manage crises.

NATO-EU cooperation has been perhaps most intensive in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Together, NATO and the EU have applied strong diplomatic pressure to ease ethnic tensions in that fragile country, and put it back on track towards stability.

Those efforts proved successful, and NATO forces supported them by collecting almost 4,000 weapons from ethnic Albanian rebel groups. Now the Alliance is providing a small security force to help provide for the security of EU and OSCE personnel who are monitoring the cease-fire.

All in all, these efforts in the Balkans have proved successful. They illustrate that practical NATO-EU cooperation on the ground can make a positive contribution to Euro-Atlantic stability and security. For that reason alone, NATO-EU relations will continue to develop and deepen into the future.

These relations will deepen for a second reason as well: because NATO is playing a key role in Europe's efforts to develop its security capacities. After the events of 11 September it is clear that Europe must be ready and capable of taking on a greater share of the burden of security from the United States.

America needs its other allies to be strong and effective. If, in responding to these attacks, the US is forced to temporarily redeploy some of its troops from the Balkans for other purposes, Europe must pick up the slack. This is one of the contingencies for which Europe has been preparing, and the logic of making improvements to European capabilities has again been clearly vindicated.

The events of 11 September will also inevitably lead to a new discussion about the US global role. American isolationists will use the events to argue their case for a reduction of the United States' world-wide commitments. They will argue that attacks of this kind are the result of being involved abroad too much and too deeply. These arguments will not carry the day.

But clearly, in the current context and into the future, the burdens of Euro-Atlantic security must be shared more fairly, together with a rebalancing of responsibilities between Europe and North America.

Much progress has already been made. The EU has set itself the headline goal of being able to deploy, by 2003, a corps-sized force that could remain in the field for at least one year. EU political and military committees have been established in Brussels, and EU countries are determining what they can contribute to meeting the headline goal.

NATO is preparing to support this endeavour, primarily by making available to the EU some of the essential assets and capabilities Europe will need to take on a greater role in security. There is now an agreement on sharing classified documents, so NATO and the EU can work together on practical issues. Several NATO-EU ad hoc working groups have been established to examine how NATO could support the EU operationally when Europe takes the lead in handling crises.

All of this is good progress, and light-years ahead of where we were even very recently. But there is room - and a requirement - for much more. We need better NATO-EU institutional relations, to ensure that defence planning is coherent and avoids duplication. Arrangements must be agreed to ensure that non-EU NATO members can participate in EU-led operations to the satisfaction and benefit of all concerned. Finally, the EU must devote sufficient resources to meet its own stated commitments on defence - because, if it is does not, EU credibility, and transatlantic teamwork, will be severely undermined.

These are daunting challenges, but they can and must be met. NATO-EU cooperation in the Balkans illustrates the potential of better, more effective relations. As we enter a more uncertain world, it is all the more important that NATO and the European Union stand together to meet effectively the many security challenges we face.

Article forms part of a special report on defence and aerospace.