European defense won't compete with NATO, says Blair

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reacting to US fears, insisted on Friday he would not let EU defense integration plans undermine NATO. EU leaders said they had narrowed their differences at a summit on joint defense arrangements to be incorporated in a new European constitution, but details remained to be agreed.

Washington, which suspects the plan is a French-inspired bid to subvert NATO, has piled pressure on Britain to block Paris and Berlin as its main sponsors. Although he agreed with France, Germany, and Belgium on Thursday to closer cooperation between the bloc's military powers, Blair has rejected proposals that the US says encroach on NATO's turf. "We need... strong European defense, but nothing whatever must put at risk our essential defense guarantees within NATO," he said. He said France and Germany recognized that European defense could not compete with NATO: "It can only work if it's fully compatible with NATO."

France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxemburg agreed in April to set up a military planning headquarters for EU crisis management missions. The four are also in favor of incorporating in the draft EU constitution a mutual defense clause similar to NATO's Article V. Washington has criticised the plan as a wasteful duplication of NATO structures and a challenge to NATO as the guarantor of Europe's security. The standoff escalated at a NATO envoys' meeting on Wednesday, when US envoy Nicholas Burns branded the initiative the "most serious threat to the future of NATO" (Reuters, 10/20/03).