El Futuro de la cooperación Unión European - OTAN

El futuro de la cooperación UE - OTAN
Strategic dialogue. But how are we
going to get there? We have twenty
one member states which are part of
both organizations. There are just eleven
nations which are not members but most
of them are formerly affi liated to both
organizations, one way or the other.
All these nations have close bilateral
contact, they share common interests,
and they also have some differences they
still have to overcome. Interestingly, they
talk to each other about these issues
of diffi culties; they have a continuing
dialogue, sometimes bilaterally, sometimes
in a larger framework. Isn’t it strange
that two organizations made up of these
states, and in the end pursuing common
strategic interests, seem incapable to talk
about these objectives, seem incapable to
defi ne ways and means to pave the way to
the future more effectively or effi ciently?
What I think is urgently needed is a
dialogue between NATO and EU at
strategic level. Both organizations at
the moment don’t talk to each other.
Achieving a common understanding of
that common interest, it is the fi rst and
most important step when defi ning a
common approach to achieve them. I’m
not saying that in the end there must be a
formalized agreement on NATO-EU roles.
I don’t believe that this will be possible.
There will remain a lot of overlapping
issues. What I fi rmly believe in, is the
necessity to create a common mindset
deriving from a common understanding
of the roles of the organizations within
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the fi eld of international security policy.
You may call this strategic dialogue. It
will take time. It will be biased by general
political considerations that are just
fi ne. It will cause friction, that’s fi ne as
well. But at the end, we will hopefully
have a clearer picture about what we
expect, or better, can expect, from both
organizations. Hopefully, we´ll have ironed
out some of the diffi culties we now face
when addressing issues of value for both
organizations and the respective member
states. One thing I’m pretty sure about.
Any such dialogue that would be of any
value needs to be initiated on both sides
simultaneously. It would need the initiative
of some nations and member states who
are involved on both sides to kick it off.
And it must, from the start, take on board
all thirty-two nations which are members
of one or the other organization. Unless
we are able to establish such dialogue,
we will face a rift in Europe and the
transatlantic community. We will have to
solve problems which shall not be there at
all one by one on a case by case basis. We
will hamper the long term effectiveness
and effi ciency of our efforts and even
worse, we may endanger the success of
our actions in both organizations.
Coming to an end. What I call an
afterthought. I’m going to leave you with
these considerations. I think they leave a
lot of room for additional thoughts. I just
want to ask a couple of questions I didn’t
fi nd an answer to. Maybe there could be
a starting point for strategic dialogue as