NATO access is ‘unrealistic’

Date: 04/04/02

SPANISH hopes to reach an agreement granting the EU's new military structures access to NATO facilities in the next three months may be unrealistic, according to a Brussels-based think-tank.

Madrid's Defence Minister Federico Trillo recently expressed cautious optimism that such a deal - elusive due to bickering between Greece and Turkey - could be reached before his country's stint at the EU's helm concludes in June. This could be vital if the Union is to realise its ambition of taking over the NATO-led 'Amber Fox' operation in Macedonia this autumn.

But a new paper from the Centre for European Security and Disarmament (CESD) says: 'There is general scepticism about reaching an accord by the end of the EU Spanish presidency, even though Spain and France are pushing hard.'

The CESD quotes unnamed officials, who question whether NATO would be willing to hand over responsibility for a 'successful' operation like Amber Fox. It is also not certain that Skopje would give the go-ahead the Union would need to lead the peacekeeping mission, currently involving 700 troops.

'There is a strong psychological element to be considered,' said CESD expert Annalisa Monaco. 'NATO, and in particular the US troops on the ground, are perceived by the local population as the only credible deterrent to the resumption of violence [which flared up last year].

'The Europeans are still associated with the failures of the Balkan wars in the early 1990s.'

The Centre for European Security and Disarmament, a Brussels based think tank, suggested in a paper released in April 2002 that the ambitions of the Spanish Presidency to reach an agreement granting the EU's new military structures access to NATO facilities by the end of their term may be unrealistic.

http://www.cesd.org/index.html http://www.cesd.org/index.html

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