NATO summit an opportunity for Europe to pull its weight in defence

12.49.44pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 2nd Apr 2008

London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has called on NATO members to develop a stronger European defence capacity at this week's summit in Bucharest and not to let petty squabbles distract them. She said:

"It is very welcome that France is moving towards full involvement in NATO again by rejoining its integrated military command and sending troops to combat zones in Afghanistan."

"This summit should aim at the removal of the host of 'national caveats' by European NATO members which mean their troops are only deployed to safer areas of Afghanistan. It is not conducive to NATO unity to leave most of the actual fighting to US, UK and Canadian forces.

"The Franco-British initiative of a decade ago to enhance European defence capability within NATO made little progress mainly because of UK foot-dragging. President Sarkozy's revival of it deserves a positive response from Gordon Brown, not least because the Americans welcome it.

"EU countries could provide a useful complement to the military operations undertaken by NATO. The EU has already demonstrated the key role played by its police and civil protection missions in consolidating peace and stability in places like Bosnia and Kosovo."

Commenting on speculation that Greece intended to veto Macedonia's application to join NATO because of failure to agree on the latter's name, Sarah Ludford said:

"This bilateral issue should be kept out of NATO affairs. If Greece vetoes Macedonia's entry for this reason, it would have its priorities skewed."