THEIR headquarters are separated only by a three-kilometre taxi ride across Brussels, and over the years they have declared their shared interests and common values any number of times. But despite having 22 members in common, NATO and the EU have always found it easier to talk about co-operating to than to do so. That may be about to change.
Leaders of both institutions hope that NATO’s biennial summit in Warsaw this July will mark a new era of partnership to defend Europe. NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg (pictured), a former prime minister of Norway, describes it as a “landmark” summit that must respond to big changes over the past two years in the threats Europe faces. Terrorists have slaughtered rock fans in Paris. Syria’s civil war has sent a wave of refugees into Europe. Russia is waging “hybrid war” in the east, achieving its aims with a mix of conventional force, political subversion and disinformation. All these problems are forcing NATO and the EU to find new ways of working together. “We have realised,” says a NATO official, “that we only own part of the tool-box.”
The EU and NATO have managed to cooperate in the…
