Vol. 573 No. 3
278 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the plans for structured defence co-operation between France, Germany and Britain, and the resulting tensions between NATO and the EU states in view of his Department's responsibility for continued development of EU-NATO relations during the Irish Presidency of the EU. [25393/03]
Proposals for structured co-operation are being examined as part of the consideration of security and defence issues at the Intergovernmental Conference. The Government believes that all member states should have the same rights and opportunities to contribute to the carrying out of EU-led crisis management tasks, or Petersberg Tasks. In the Intergovernmental Conference context, Ireland has conveyed its belief that the accepted principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness should remain at the heart of any new arrangements to be elaborated in the security and defence area. In the context of the implementation of the Petersberg Tasks, the modalities for EU-NATO co-operation have worked well thus far, as evidenced in the context of Operation Concordia, the EU-led military monitoring and stabilisation operation being conducted, with recourse to certain NATO assets and capabilities, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
As the holder of the EU Presidency in the first half of next year, Ireland will seek to consolidate and build on practical co-operation in accordance with the established arrangements for co-operation between the two organisations. We consider that future developments in ESDP should be based on such arrangements, which take into account the autonomy of decision making of each organisation and the principle of non-discrimination against a member state.
