Vol. 475 No. 1
91 Mr. R. Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for a Foreign Affairs the Government's reaction to a statement by the American ambassador to NATO, Mr. Robert Hunter, at a transatlantic policy network meeting, which claimed that as NATO expands to the East, the relationship between NATO and the EU will need to get a lot closer. [
The remarks to which the Deputy's question refers were made by Ambassador Hunter at a transatlantic policy conference last month which was held in the European Parliament in Brussels. The remarks no doubt reflect the reality that the EU and NATO are both currently preparing to take in new members from Central and Eastern Europe, and that these processes, although autonomous, are complementary in some respects, principally in the objectives, shared by all, that no new dividing lines or lines of confrontation should be created in Europe, and that the common vision of a co-operative future for Europe be translated into reality by creating a common security space in which all states are equal partners.
The OSCE, at summit level, has repeatedly affirmed that European security requires the widest co-operation and co-ordination among participating states and European and transatlantic organisations. Former Yugoslavia is a particular example of this concept of mutually reinforcing co-operation in action, where the EU, the UN, the OSCE, NATO, Western European Union and the Council of Europe have all co-operated in the cause of peace.
