NATO/EU

The North Atlantic Coun­cil (NAC) and the Euro­pean Union’s Polit­i­cal and Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (PSC) met at NATO Head­quar­ters on 27 Octo­ber to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina.

In a joint press con­fer­ence, both Mr Solana and Mr De Hoop Schef­fer expressed con­cern about the polit­i­cal rhetoric com­ing out of Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina. Such rhetoric is not con­ducive to fur­ther­ing the country’s stat­ed objec­tive of clos­er inte­gra­tion with the Euro­pean Union and NATO. 

Dis­cus­sions are under­way on the pos­si­ble evo­lu­tion of the man­date of the EU-led force (EUFOR), which is sup­port­ed by NATO under the so-called Berlin Plus arrange­ments. NATO is also work­ing close­ly with the Bosn­ian author­i­ties on defence reform issues through the country’s Indi­vid­ual Part­ner­ship Action Plan and through sup­port pro­vid­ed by NATO Head­quar­ters in Sarajevo. 

Pri­or to the NAC-PSC meet­ing, EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Javier Solana and NATO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Jaap de Hoop Schef­fer met bilat­er­al­ly to dis­cuss oth­er issues of com­mon con­cern includ­ing Afghanistan, Koso­vo, and anti-pira­cy oper­a­tions off the coast of Somalia. 

The EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and the NATO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al both high­light­ed the sub­stan­tive coop­er­a­tion that is devel­op­ing between the EU and NATO in the­atres where both orga­ni­za­tions are engaged. 

“We con­tin­ue to have a sol­id and flu­ent rela­tion­ship in try­ing to see how we can sta­bi­lize parts of the world in which we are work­ing togeth­er,” under­lined Mr Solana. 

Source:
NATO