Ari Vatanen to draft the report on NATO for the European Parliament
08.07.2008
The Committee for Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament decided, on July 8th, 2008, to give to MEP Ari Vatanen the task of drafting the Parliament's report on the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in the security architecture of the European Union.
"These issues are often debated behind closed doors, or amongst academics, but they should be addressed in a public, open and appropriate manner in the European Parliament – which represents almost 500 million European citizens, of which 94 % are also NATO citizens. The European Parliament should be proactive in security policy," Ari Vatanen comments.
In order to the EU to be truly a global, responsible and credible actor in promoting democracy, peace and prosperity, it is essential to participate fully in building the security architecture of Europe. NATO constitutes the primary security framework for Europe, therefore the role and function of NATO in relation to the EU should be elaborated: what is the role now and what should it be in the future.
"For example, in Finland, the vicinity of Russia prevents our current leaders from reacting to the rapidly changing world. Otherwise we would already be members of NATO," Ari Vatanen captures.
Objectives of the report:
1) to clarify and explicate the role of NATO in the EU security framework,
2) to prevent overlapping functions and thus enable allocating resources efficiently,
3) to intertwine NATO to become a closer partner to the European Union Common Foreign and Security Policy and Security and Defence Policy,
4) to give concrete proposals on how to achieve these objectives.
Design by
