BRUSSELS: Ambassadors from NATO's 19 member-states have held an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to discuss the European Union's emerging defence identity. The diplomats made no statement after the meeting, which lasted more than three hours and was called at the request of the United States.
NATO sources said last night that the atmosphere in the meeting was friendly and that there would be more such meetings in the future.
The US ambassador to NATO, Mr Nicholas Burns, said that plans for an independent EU military headquarters represented the "most serious threat to the future of NATO".
Mr Burns spoke in more detail about his concerns during a NATO conference in Prague at the weekend, saying that relations between NATO and the EU were unsatisfactory at present.
"I would boil it down to this - if we can guarantee co-operation between NATO and the EU and if that's going to be the spirit and fact of our relationship, we'll be fine. But if some members of the EU want to turn this into a competitive relationship, we'll have great disagreement."
Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed earlier this year to form a closer defence union outside NATO, establishing a joint military planning and command centre in Brussels. Britain, which initially opposed the plan, has softened its position and expressed a willingness to participate in such a union within the context of the EU's new constitutional arrangements currently being debated.
However, British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair joined French President Jacques Chirac and other European leaders at a summit last week in reassuring the US that NATO remains the cornerstone of Europe's defence.
Mr Blair said the EU's plans would strength the alliance, rather than undermine its unity.
At the same EU meeting, Mr Chirac said the European defence arm would be "open to all and is coherent with our NATO commitments."
Germany's chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, said yesterday that the EU plan was not directed against NATO, but insisted that a group of countries within the EU should be allowed to form closer defence links. He said that such an alliance would undoubtedly need a planning capacity of its own, but that officials in Berlin, Paris and London were now considering whether an independent command facility was necessary.
The EU and NATO have a formal agreement that allows the EU to use NATO military assets for some operations, even if NATO is not involved. Washington is understood to be concerned about the prospect of an independent EU headquarters emerging as a rival to NATO, particularly in view of a proposal in the draft constitution for a mutual defence guarantee among some EU member-states.
The Taoiseach has made clear that Ireland will not join any mutual defence pact and that Irish forces will only be deployed on crisis-management missions approved by the United Nations, the Government and the Oireachtas.
NATO ambassadors will today meet their counterparts in the EU's Political and Security Committee, where Ireland is represented.
The Government is expected to make a modest pledge in Madrid, probably between €2 million and €4 million.