NATO Romania

The European Union and NATO established formal relations in January 2001 and starting with the adoption of the EU-NATO declaration on ESDP on 16 December 2002  .NATO and EU relations have move most rapidly and constructively forward.

This declaration not only reaffirmed the EU assured access to NATO’s planning capabilities for its own military operations, but also reiterated the following political principles of the strategic partnership:
-    effective mutual consultation
-    equality and due regard for the decision-making autonomy of the EU and NATO
-    respect for the interests of the EU and NATO members states
-    respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations
-    coherent, transparent and mutually reinforcing development of the military capability requirements common to the two organisations  
 A package of documents was agreed by both organizations in March 2003, the NATO-EU Agreement on Security of Information and the “Berlin Plus” agreement which  consists of the following major elements:
-    a NATO-EU Security Agreement (covers the exchange of classified information under reciprocal security protection rules)
-    assured EU access to NATO's planning capabilities for actual use in the military planning of EU-led crisis management operations
-    availability of NATO capabilities and common assets, such as communication units and headquarters for EU-led crisis management operations
-    procedures for release, monitoring, return and recall of NATO assets and capabilities
-    terms of Reference for NATO’s Deputy SACEUR - who in principle will be the operation commander of an EU-led operation under the "Berlin Plus" arrangements (and who is always a European) - and European Command Options for NATO
-    NATO-EU consultation arrangements in the context of an EU-led crisis management operation making use of NATO assets and capabilities
-    incorporation within NATO's long-established defence planning system, of the military needs and capabilities that may be required for EU-led military operations, thereby ensuring the availability of well-equipped forces trained for either NATO-led or EU-led operations

These agreements made possible a very close and good cooperation between NATO and EU. The “Berlin Plus” arrangements being put in practice in Operation Concordia, the European Union’s first military deployment in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Daily NATO-EU cooperation is tacking place in Bosnia and Herzegovina where EU took the command of SFOR and know led EUFOR and NATO experts are involved in work on the EU Headline Goal.  
For the future NATO and EU ministers reaffirmed their willingness to develop closer cooperation between the two organizations not only in continuing to stabilize the situation in the Balkans but also in combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But despite these very impressive achievements NATO-EU cooperation could negatively be influenced by the very serious disputes between US and some European members and to remain a paper rhetoric and marginal to foreign and security policy focus of the member states. NATO and EU are not independent international actors. They are a reflection of the common denominator of the foreign and security policies of the member states. More than that as Philip Stephens underlined in Financial Times “the enduring paradox of all international institutions is that they depend for their energy and effectiveness on strong nations.”   The future cooperation between NATO and EU can not be improved without taking in consideration the current status of relations among the most important members and the easy methodological tool for such and endeavour is to proceed to an analysis of the Euro-Atlantic relations, specially when so many scholars and politicians underline that the current crisis between Americans and Europeans is the most serious one since WWII.   NATO is strong and EU is strong when the Euro-Atlantic relation is strong and is not by accident that the participation of NATO in Bosnia it is considered by many as the “GOLDEN AGE OF NATO.”  Any evaluation of the current status of NATO-EU cooperation will highlight the fact that previous and lasting cooperation between these two organizations was facilitated by their great historic achievements, strategic and common sense. On the other hand, the realities of globalisation, and specifically the growing divergences between US and some European countries in how to deal with the most important challenges of the future, is not encouraging.  To guarantee a very effective partnership between NATO and EU, all the members of these two organizations should proceed to modernization of Euro-Atlantic relation, guarantee complementarities of NATO and EU and implement practical cooperation on hot issues.