Insight
NATO, the EU and Brexit: Joining forces? by Ian Bond 5 July 2016
NATO and the EU must work together to manage crises in Europe’s neighbourhood. The UK’s referendum vote has given them one more problem to solve. The NATO Summit in Warsaw on July 8th and 9th was not supposed to be about Britain. NATO and the EU are fully occupied in trying to deal with security threats to their south and east. But NATO leaders will not be able to ignore the security implications of the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Paradoxically, the departure from the EU of one of its most pro-NATO member-states could give new impetus to EU-NATO co-operation. But it will be an opportunity wasted if either organisation sees Brexit as a chance to strengthen its own position at the expense of the other. The longstanding obstacles to EU-NATO co-operation have not disappeared; in particular, the unresolved conflict in Cyprus still gets in the way. But NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was at the European Council on June 28th when the EU’s High Representative for foreign and security policy Federica Mogherini presented the new ‘Global strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy’ (EUGS). Now Mogherini will attend the Warsaw Summit. The two organisations will issue a joint statement in Warsaw on co-operation in areas including countering hybrid and cyber threats, defence capacity building and maritime security. NATO and the EU have realised that the crises to the east and south do not fit neatly into institutional boxes. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine demanded both sanctions, imposed by the EU, and military reassurance to NATO allies in Central and Eastern Europe. Russia’s use of hybrid warfare made NATO and the EU see that they had to work together in areas such as improved border control, strengthened capabilities to resist cyber-attacks, and countering propaganda and disinformation. In the south, also, both organisations have a role to play in dealing with the migration crisis. NATO’s contribution has been limited so far, with a naval operation in the Aegean working with Greece and Turkey to spot refugees and migrants trying to reach the Greek islands. It has the capacity to do CER INSIGHT: NATO, the EU and Brexit: Joining forces? 5 July 2016
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