NATO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION, A PARTNERSHIP FOR WORLD PEACE: HOW IT WORKS
NATO Summit, 10 July 2024, Washington DC. Meeting of Heads of State
and Government on the occasion of NATO’s 75th anniversary.
Text and images, including videos, are NATO’s released under the terms of Fair use unless otherwise stated.
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by Rose Maramba
In view of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), GUIDEPOST is publishing a special series on NATO-EU relations.
Europe, the erstwhile hotbed of regional wars, and where the two world wars were erupted, has become a bastion of peace and democracy since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) 72 years ago, the forerunner of today’s European Union (EU). The EU, which is the result of the ECSC’s “spilling over” onto the European Economic Community (EEC), which in turn spilled over to the European Communities/European Community (EC), is a supranational economic and political union with a population of 448.4 million “Europeans” spread out across an area of over 4 million km².
Given these impressive numbers, one might wonder why the EU has no defense community to secure its people and borders. Actually, a European Defense Community (EDC) treaty was concluded in Paris in 1952 but it was an abortive plan. Today the EU relies on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its defense and security.
This clip takes you inside the Departmental Auditorium in Washington D.C. where the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April 1949. Twelve countries signed the treaty that day: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
[The video] shows parts of the ceremony including an extract of President Truman’s speech: “For us, war is not inevitable. We do not believe that there are blind tides of history which sweep men one way or another. In our own time we have seen brave men overcome obstacles that seemed insurmountable and forces that seemed overwhelming. Men with courage and vision can still determine their own destiny. They can choose slavery or freedom, war or peace. I have no doubt which they will choose.
The Treaty we are signing today is evidence of the path they will follow.
If there is anything certain today, if there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace.”
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Here is the telling case of Spain:
With the approval of Parliament, Spain became NATO’s 16th member on 30 May 1982. However, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), headed up by Felipe González, swept into power with 48.1% of the vote in the parliamentary elections in December of the same year and an absolute majority in the Congress.
PSOE’s win, the largest landslide victory in a Spanish democratic election, was underpinned by a controversial but hugely popular promise to hold a national referendum on Spain’s membership in NATO. González’s government froze Spanish participation in the North Atlantic organization pending the referendum.
At the time, many Spaniards equated NATO with U.S. imperialism and its attendant military bases constructed on Spanish soil during the Franco regime. Thus, U.S. imperialism aside, NATO was also associated with Franco’s dictatorship.
The government of Felipe González’s anti-NATO campaign was coterminous, in time, with Spain’s lengthy and extremely difficult negotiations for European Economic Community (EEC) membership which began on 5 February 1979, only four years after the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. As such, Spain’s application for membership in the EEC was bogged down by the stigma of the Franco dictatorship. And if that was not enough, France, who saw Spain as its natural rival, placed all sorts of stumbling blocks in the aspirant’s way.
Helmut Kohl to Felipe Gonzalez: “You can’t join the EEC and not contribute to its defense.”
The leftist González government was only too aware that to achieve the much-needed post-Franco democratization and modernization it must situate Spain squarely in the European mainstream. That would undoubtedly be through joining the EEC. The Spaniards wholeheartedly agreed.
González pursued the EEC membership in earnest. And yet, wanting his cake and eat it too, González wanted to spare Spain the membership in NATO at the same time.
Pivotal Germany, under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, sided with Spain on the EEC issue. Here was Kohl’s stick to the EEC carrot: Spain can’t be in the EEC and out of NATO too. Or, as he put it bluntly to González, you can’t join Europe and not defend it. Kohl, fronting for NATO, would rather González just forgot all about the referendum.
President Felipe Gonzalez signs the Treaty of Adhesion to the European Economic Community on 12 June 1985 at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Present at the signing were Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Moran, center, and Secretary of State for Relations with the European Community Manuel Moran, left. (Ministerio de la Presidencia Gobierno de España/Pool Moncloa via Wikipedia)
As the negotiations for Spain’s entry into the European Community dragged on, González’s position began to shift until he reached a point where, without dropping the referendum, he accepted campaigning for NATO. This was a 180º volte-face, a huge political gamble. Key members of his party, notably Alfonso Guerra who was a Vice President of the PSOE government, were astounded by González’s change of heart.
The Accession Treaty to the European Communities, which made Spain a member of the European Economic Community – now the European Union – was signed on 12 June 1985, in the Royal Palace of Madrid, going into effect in the New Year (1 January 1986).
Only after Spain obtained the EEC membership was the NATO referendum held, that is, on the 12th of March 1986. Voters were asked to either ratify or turn down the national Government’s proposal for Spain to stay on in NATO. With González campaigning for ratification on one hand and holding the brand new Treaty of Accession on the other, and given his still enormous popularity in the country, 9,054,509 Spaniards, or 56.85% of the electorate, went along with González and, despite the lingering anti-NATO sentiments, voted yes.
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NATO’s Relations with the European Union*
Source: NATO
Last updated 13 Jun. 2024
Text and images, including videos, are NATO’s released under the terms of Fair use.
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- The European Union (EU) is an essential partner for NATO. The two organisations share common values, strategic interests and a majority of member countries. They work side by side in crisis management, on capability development, in addressing hybrid threats and challenges posed by growing strategic competition, as well as in building the capacities of their common partners in the east and south.
- Relations between NATO and the EU were institutionalised in the early 2000s, building on steps taken during the 1990s to promote greater European responsibility in defence matters (NATO-Western European Union cooperation1).
- NATO and the EU play complementary, coherent and mutually reinforcing roles in supporting international peace and security.
- The development of European defence capabilities is a key element of joint efforts to make the Euro-Atlantic area safer, and it contributes to transatlantic burden-sharing. In developing these capabilities, NATO Allies must ensure coherence and complementarity, and avoid unnecessary duplication.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hosted a working dinner for Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Thursday 2 July 2020.
Close cooperation between NATO and the EU is key to developing an international comprehensive approach to crisis management and operations, requiring the use of both military and civilian means.
- NATO and the EU stand united in condemning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and right to self-defence.
- The 2022 Strategic Concept – the Alliance’s core policy document, which sets NATO’s strategic direction for the coming years – describes the European Union as a unique and essential partner for NATO and calls for an enhanced strategic partnership.
- In January 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen signed the third Joint Declaration on EU-NATO Cooperation to further strengthen and expand the partnership between NATO and the EU. This declaration builds on the unprecedented progress in cooperation between the two organisations since previous declarations were signed in 2016 and 2018.
- NATO and the EU currently have 23 members in common. [NATO has a total of 32 members.] For the development of the partnership between NATO and the EU, non-EU Allies’ fullest involvement in EU defence efforts is vital.
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*Use of content:
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