Euro-Atlantic Partnership

 

 

Fostering substantive dialogue and cooperation

The EAPC and the PfP programme are central to the Allies' vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace. Three priorities underpin cooperation with partners:

• Dialogue and consultations;
• Building capabilities and strengthening interoperability; and
• Supporting reform.

Activities under the EAPC and PfP are set out in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Work Plan. This is a catalogue of around 1,400 activities covering over 30 areas of cooperation, ranging from arms control, through language training, foreign and security policy, and military geography.

The EAPC and the PfP programme have steadily developed their own dynamic, as successive steps have been taken by NATO and its partner countries to extend security cooperation, building on the partnership arrangements they have created.

As NATO has transformed over the years to meet the new challenges of the evolving security environment, partnership has developed along with it. Today, partner countries are engaged with NATO in tackling 21st century security challenges, including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The ways and means of cooperation developed under NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership have proven to be of mutual benefit to Allies and partners, and have helped promote stability. The mechanisms and programmes for cooperation developed under EAPC/PfP are also being used as the basis to extend cooperation to other non-member countries beyond the Euro-Atlantic area.

Partners are expected to fund their own participation in cooperation programmes. However, NATO supports the cost of individual participation of some countries in specific events and may also support the hosting of events in some partner countries.
 

Values and commitments

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership is about more than practical cooperation – it is also about values.

Each partner country signs the PfP Framework Document. In doing so, partners commit to:

• respecting international law, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Final Act, and international disarmament and arms control agreements;
• refraining from the threat or use of force against other states;
• settling disputes peacefully.

The Framework Document also enshrines a commitment by the Allies to consult with any partner country that perceives a direct threat to its territorial integrity, political independence or security – a mechanism which, for example, Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia made use of during the Kosovo crisis. This commitment was also included as a provision in the 2009 Declaration to Complement the NATO-Ukraine Charter – in March 2014, with its independence and territorial integrity under threat, Ukraine invoked the provision and requested a meeting with Allies in the format of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, a consultation body that preceded the NATO-Ukraine Council.
 

The diversity of partners

Over the years, 34 countries have joined the Euro-Atlantic Partnership. A number of these have since become NATO member states, through seven rounds of NATO enlargement since the founding of the EAPC/PfP. This has changed the balance between Allies and partners in the EAPC/PfP: since March 2004, there have been more Allies than partners.

The remaining partners are a very diverse group, with different goals and ambitions with regard to their cooperation with NATO. They include Eastern and South-eastern European countries, the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and Western European states.

Some partners are in the process of reforming their defence structures and capabilities. Others are able to contribute significant forces to NATO-led operations and wish to further strengthen interoperability, and can also offer fellow partner countries advice, training and assistance in various areas. Other partners are interested in using their cooperation with NATO in order to prepare for membership in the Alliance.
 

Facilitating dialogue and consultation

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meets at various levels and many partner countries have established diplomatic representation and liaison arrangements at NATO Headquarters and NATO Commands. Dialogue and consultation is also facilitated by various other means.

Representatives of partner countries may take up assignments as PfP interns in NATO’s International Staff and various agencies. Military staff from partner countries may also take up posts in military commands, as so-called PfP Staff Elements.

NATO has also established Contact Point Embassies in partner countries to facilitate liaison and support public diplomacy efforts. The Secretary General has appointed a Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia. NATO also has liaison and information offices in Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
 

Evolution of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership

November 1989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, signalling the end of the Cold War. Within a short period, the remarkable pace of change in Central and Eastern Europe left NATO faced with a new and very different set of security challenges.

Allied leaders responded at their summit meeting in London, in July 1990, by extending a “hand of friendship” across the old East-West divide and proposing a new cooperative relationship with all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

This sea-change in attitudes was enshrined in a new strategic concept for the Alliance, issued in November 1991, which adopted a broader approach to security. Dialogue and cooperation would be essential parts of the approach required to manage the diversity of challenges facing the Alliance. The key goals were now to reduce the risk of conflict arising out of misunderstanding or design and to better manage crises affecting the security of the Allies; to increase mutual understanding and confidence among all European states; and to expand the opportunities for genuine partnership in dealing with common security problems.

The scene was set for the establishment in December 1991 of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), a forum to bring together NATO and its new partner countries to discuss issues of common concern.

NACC consultations focused on residual Cold War security concerns such as the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Baltic States. Political cooperation was also launched on a number of security and defence-related issues.

The NACC broke new ground in many ways. However, it focused on multilateral, political dialogue and lacked the possibility of each partner country developing individual cooperative relations with NATO.

Deepening partnership

This changed in 1994 with the launch of the Partnership for Peace (PfP), a major programme of practical bilateral cooperation between NATO and individual partner countries, which represented a significant leap forward in the cooperative process.

And in 1997, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) was created to replace the NACC and to build on its achievements, paving the way for the development of an enhanced and more operational partnership.

The EAPC and the PfP programme have steadily developed their own dynamic, as successive steps have been taken by NATO and its partner countries to extend security cooperation, building on the partnership arrangements they have created.

Further initiatives have been taken to deepen cooperation between Allies and PfP partners at successive summit meetings in Madrid (1997), Washington (1999), Prague (2002), Istanbul (2004), Riga (2006), Bucharest (2008) and Lisbon (2010). The 2010 Strategic Concept, adopted at Lisbon, stresses that cooperative security constitutes one of the Alliance’s core tasks, together with collective defence and crisis management. It states that “The Alliance will engage actively to enhance international security, through partnership with relevant countries and other international organisations (…)”. It also refers specifically to the EAPC and PfP as “central to our vision of Europe whole, free and in peace.”

In 2011, when NATO foreign ministers met in Berlin, they approved a more efficient and flexible partnership policy, designed to streamline NATO’s partnership tools in order to open all cooperative activities and exercises to all partners and to harmonise NATO’s partnership programmes. Because of this, PfP activities have been opened up to other partnership frameworks and – vice-versa – PfP partners have been able to participate in activities hosted by the other cooperative frameworks.

 

Milestones