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EUROPE'S NEW foreign policy supremo promised yesterday to end the EU's weakness and indecision on defence, underlining an effort to establish the 15-nation bloc as a powerful force on security issues.
Javier Solana, the outgoing Nato secretary general, made the pledge as he prepared to take up his EU post as high representative for foreign affairs, which is dedicated to developing Europe's political and military policy. Asked about the EU's reputation for indecision and weakness on defence and security, Mr Solana said his job is to "try to change that description".
With a "more formal" relationship between the EU and Nato due, Mr Solana promised to continue working on the security agenda and argued that his Nato experience "will be of great importance as I develop the European security and defence identity looking towards the 21st century". Mr Solana's job at Nato will be taken by Lord Robertson, the British Secretary of State for Defence, who is due to start in Brussels within 10 days.
After the Balkan war and a flurry of initiatives among EU member states, Brussels is embarking on its most ambitious plans yet to beef up its defence capacity. The move reflects the changing security focus in the Euro-Atlantic area since the end of the Cold War. This year's conflict in Kosovo underlined the extent to which the geographical front line of Nato operations has shifted, with countries such as Italy now central to the operations of the 19-nation alliance.
Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have agreed on the need for Europe to share a greater proportion of the military burden carried by the United States. At a summit in Cologne in June, European heads of government agreed that the EU must have "the capacity for autonomous action".