The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

STARTING TO ‘THINK BIG’ 207Europe together with a strong USA can find the necessary solutions and takeresponsibility for forming a just and sustainable world order based on ourcommon values.’ 24The EU’s increasingly active role in international security management has,however, not only affected its member states. The two Nordic non-EU membersnow also relate to the EU’s external policies in a more intense way than before.The Icelandic and Norwegian governments are generally supportive of EUpolicies and regularly align themselves with the EU’s foreign policy statements.As the ESDP process took off, a former Norwegian Minister for ForeignAffairs, Thorbjørn Jagland, called it ‘One of the most dynamic processes in theEU cooperation at present’ saying that it ‘also affects fundamental Norwegianinterests’ and that: ‘We are ready to contribute civil and military resources. Wewant Norway to be linked as closely as possible to the new EU cooperation.’ 25His former Icelandic counterpart, Halldór Ásgrímsson, has similarly argued thatrelations with the EU ‘are and will remain a dominant aspect of Icelandic foreignpolicy’. 26For Iceland and Norway, however, the obvious problem lies in their meagreopportunities to influence EU policy making. It matters little whether they adapttheir national foreign policies and strategies to EU foreign policy: they will stillbe absent from the decision-making table. This has led to somewhat ambivalentrhetoric surrounding Norway’s attitudes towards the CFSP and the ESDP.Seeking various ways to influence their development, Norway is a strong supporterof the ‘Berlin Plus’ arrangements and has been deploring the fact that‘there is little will to use the cooperative arrangements established betweenNATO and the EU’. 27 The Norwegian Government also sees the North AtlanticTreaty Organization as the best guarantor of a strong transatlantic link andclearly sees a risk of NATO being marginalized by a strengthened dialoguedirectly between the EU and the USA. At the same time, however, Norway haswelcomed the Union’s takeover of most of NATO’s tasks in Bosnia and Herzegovina,on the grounds that this will ‘contribute to more equal transatlanticrelations’. 2824 Møller (note 11).25 Jagland, T., Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs, ‘On Norway and the European Security andDefence Policy (ESDP)’, The Storting, Oslo, 9 June 2000, URL .26 Ásgrímsson, H., Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, ‘Report on Foreign andInternational Affairs’, Althingi, Reykjavík, 6 Apr. 2004, URL .27 Petersen, J., Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs, ‘Norsk sikkerhetspolitikk etter utvidelsen avEU og NATO’ [Norwegian security policy after enlargement of the EU and NATO], Speech delivered atOslo Militære Samfund, 4 Oct. 2004, URL (author’s translation). ‘Berlin Plus’ arrangements are a package of agreements reached in 2002–2003 between the EU and NATO dealing primarily with the EU’s access to NATO planning capabilitiesbut also with other assets and capabilities for EU-led crisis management operations.28 Petersen (note 27).