Common set of new proposals

on the implementation of the Joint Declaration signed by the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission and the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

  • 05 Dec. 2017 -
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  • Press Release (2017) 174
  • Issued on 05 Dec. 2017
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  • Last updated: 05 Dec. 2017 17:50

Countering hybrid threats

Situational Awareness:

  • Intensify relations among actors at staff level engaged in countering hybrid threats and strengthen cooperation, including:
    • In developing their approaches to operate in the domain of Publicly Available Information including processes and tools of collecting, analysing, and disseminating as well as exchanging of unclassified products.
    • In developing collaboration with the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats including in support of situational awareness.
  • Strengthen cooperation at staff level on threat assessments, including terrorism, emanating from the South and the East; Consider contributions by the NATO Hub for the South, as appropriate.
  • Examine possibilities to regularly exchange information between EU and NATO staffs, including relevant Agencies, on countering terrorist threats. Report to respective Councils by June 2018.
  • Map and analyse, by 2018, gender indicators in early warning systems/analysis including those indicators that could improve situational awareness and preparedness, in support of UNSCR 1325 (2000).

 Strategic communications

  • Coordinate strategic communications messaging on security threats where appropriate, including terrorism related issues.

Bolstering resilience

  • Strengthen staff-to-staff cooperation on civil preparedness, including risk assessments, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), mass casualty incidents, and population movement.
  • Develop a programme of staff-to-staff scenario based discussions and workshops designed to promote mutual understanding of hybrid crisis management, in line with the respective playbook/operational protocol, as well as the implications on capability development upon the findings of the relevant Hybrid Threats Table Top exercises conducted in 2016.
  • The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats could facilitate scenario-based discussions, workshops and exercises.
  • NATO and the EU staffs to map their civil preparedness efforts between NATO’s Resilience Baselines and the EU’s Prevention and Preparedness work-streams and set out proposals on where further co-operation may add value in the course of 2018.
  • Building on established practice and applied procedures, explore the inclusion, where appropriate, of EU staff in the NATO Resilience Advisory Support Teams and other assistance teams and NATO staff in relevant EU advisory prevention and preparedness missions conducted under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) subject to consent by the receiving State.

Operational cooperation including maritime issues

  • Building on experience in the Mediterranean Sea and the Horn of Africa explore further possibilities for mutual logistical support and information sharing between staffs on operational activities, including on irregular migration, when the EU and NATO consider or conduct activities in the same theatres. In addition, consider further possibilities for maritime cooperation.

Cyber security and defence

  • Exchange between staffs relevant good practices concerning the cyber aspects and implications of crisis management and response, as well as operational aspects of cyber defence, such as analysis of threats and malware information, with a view to improving the understanding of and identifying potential synergies between the two organisations’ approaches, including existing cyber security incident response teams.

Defence capabilities

  • Establish cooperation and consultation at staff level, through regular meetings, in military mobility in all domains (land, maritime, air) to ensure a coherent approach and synergies between the EU and NATO aiming to effectively address existing barriers, including legal, infrastructure and procedural, in order to facilitate and expedite movement and border crossing of military personnel and materiel, in full respect of sovereign national decisions.
  • Hold an informal workshop to be co-organised in the first half of 2018 in order to develop a shared understanding on ways that counter-terrorism may benefit from defence capability development.
  • Ensure coherence of output between the Co-ordinated Annual Review of Defence (CARD) and respective NATO processes (such as the NATO Defence Planning Process), where requirements overlap while recognising the different nature of the two organisations and their respective responsibilities, through staff-to-staff contacts and upon invitations by the individual Member States concerned to NATO staff to attend CARD bilateral meetings, as appropriate.

Exercises

  • In view of PACE 2018, on the basis of lessons identified from exercises held in 2017, seek to develop by June 2018 the requirements for secure communications at staff-to-staff level, in line with appropriate security arrangements and procedures, for the exchange of classified information with the aim of improving their ability to interact securely and effectively.
  • Building on the experience and lessons learned in CMX 17 and PACE 18, develop a plan for implementing parallel and coordinated exercises (PACE) between NATO and the EU in 2019-2020.
  • Based on the experience of the respective EU and NATO exercises in hybrid and cyber contexts, develop and roll-out, starting in 2018, a set of common training and exercise modules, be it stand alone or integrated in the scenarios of wider exercises and training formats, to provide coherent training to respective personnel.
  • Enhance staff-to-staff interaction, as appropriate, in the framework of relevant NATO and EU disaster response exercises.
  • Establish a staff-to-staff dialogue to explore the possibility to conduct detailed scenario-based discussions on fighting terrorism for staff training purposes.

Defence and security capacity building

EU and NATO staffs, will:

  • Exchange information, as appropriate, about the security situation in Eastern and Southern partner countries, as well as Iraq and Libya and the Western Balkans, as well as on how to support those countries and relevant international organizations.
  • Ensure continued information sharing and de-confliction, at all levels, with regard to activities in Iraq.
  • Coordinate efforts in support of the Afghan government’s four year Road Map and reform mechanisms.
  • Coordinate the support to building the capacities of partners to counter CBRN, cyber and terrorist threats.
  • Foster cooperation on gender and WPS related aspects in building partners' capacity in areas as appropriate in support of UNSCR 1325 (2000).

Strengthening dialogue between EU and NATO

  • Establish a staff-to-staff dialogue on counter-terrorism related issues including in view of NATO and EU participation to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS meetings, also with a view to strengthened cooperation in relevant strategic communications approaches.
  • Where appropriate, staffs to envisage coordinated visits to partner countries in the East, South and in the Western Balkans.
  • Staffs to consider, on a case-by-case basis, inviting representatives of the other organization as observers to meetings with partners.
  • Continue and further enhance staff-to-staff dialogue on the implementation of the common proposals, including between the NATO and EU military staffs.
  • Mutually enhance cross briefings, in a balanced way, to relevant EU and NATO Councils/Committees/working groups on issues of common interest including, among others, security challenges emanating from the East and the South, the Western Balkans, counter-terrorism, cyber, hybrid, maritime security and defence and security capacity building, as well as major developments in European security and defence related to the implementation of the EU Global Strategy and the European Defence Action Plan, and NATO policies.
  • Exchange between staffs best practice on education and training to address the issue of 'Children and Armed Conflict' and explore the possibility of developing common staff training.
  • By June 2018, staffs to provide a written report to the respective Councils on modalities for systematic cooperation, engagement and liaison between the staffs of the two Organisations in the implementation of the common proposals.