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EU-NATO: Closer cooperation stagnating

01 January 2002

In December Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit announced that Ankara was satisfied with consultation agreements with the EU over its security and defence policy and would lift its veto on EU access to NATO planning capabilities. There was some speculation on whether Turkey had received assurances that EU forces would not be deployed to Cyprus or to the Aegean. However in the official statements after a meeting between the US, the UK and Turkey in Ankara, nothing was mentioned about specific arrangements that had been made in this area.
The EU and NATO still have to draft a formal document governing the loan, return and payment for NATO military assets, operational command and planning capabilities for EU crisis?management operations. This document must then be ratified by the 15 EU members and approved by the 19 members of NATO.
At the 14?15 December European Council in Laeken there was a new setback when Greece refused to accept the result of the Ankara agreement, as it was not a official EU paper. So the whole process has now to start anew. In addition a security agreement must be finalised that allows the exchange of sensitive documents. Institutional arrangements such as the frequency and structure of contacts have mostly been worked out and are already implemented on a temporary basis. In January 2003 the EU force should be ready for deployment at the moment when Greece takes over the EU presidency.

Jane's Defence Weekly 12.12.01, 2.1.02 (Luke Hill, Lale Sarlibrahimoglu)