El Futuro de la cooperación Unión European - OTAN

the political considerations I started with,
and the more tactical level I arrived at
right now. Well, it is actually a black
box. Sometimes it is referred to as the
respective organizations autonomy of
decision making. It’s actually the core task
of the organizations. It is the process that
on a case by case basis, breaks down the
political strategic objectives into concise
military and civilian action. Action during
the execution of which new common
interests develop: effectiveness, effi ciency
and positive results. This black box is just
fi ne. It does not hamper the coordination
and cooperation of both organizations. It
does not impede the congruence of the
organizations objectives. But we have to
understand that it takes the allies and
member states responsibility to ensure
that the input of this box to the NATO
side is coherent to that on the EU side,
and vice versa. Only then, we will have an
output that allows for coordinated action
with the means best suited. However, this
is sometimes a painful exercise in both
organizations.
That takes us to the tactical level we
described in big detail this morning,
so I will limit myself to some aspects,
what I call the mud zone. After talking
about the political level of interests for
so long, it may seem inadequate to now
address the mud zone as a possible
common area of interest as well. But
nevertheless, deliberately taking into
account the political realities mentioned
before, I think this level of interaction
Panel III: “Cuestiones de interés común”
The common interest in reestablishing
peace and stability
in the Balkans resulted in a
fi nally comprehensive approach
taking advantage of the
strength of both organizations.
deserves some consideration as well. Both
organizations have only limited resources,
effective and effi cient use of them is of
paramount importance. Establishing close
relationships, avoiding duplication of effort
and playing the strength of the respective
organization therefore should be a
common interest as well. We encounter
some problems here. Other political
considerations come into play taking the
quality of obviously common interest
hostage. They prevent the establishment
of respective agreements. They not
only decrease the effi ciency of political
measures, they also endanger the political
credibility of both organizations, and
thus, their role as powerful actors within
the global community. Actually, we have
identifi ed the need of close cooperation
to pursue our common interest as so
important, it may be considered to be a
common interest in itself. But we so far
have been unable to fi nd a solution for
this issue. Even worse, we ourselves have
established a dead end here. Common
interests may be fi ne, they should result
in common, or at least, well coordinated
action.
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