The common defense policy of the European Union will become, as expected, one of the main topics of the Franco-German summit. Nicolas Sarkozy advocates the return of France to the military command structures of NATO, from which it withdrew in 1966 by decision of the then President de Gaulle. At the same time, Paris insists that, first of all, the USA agrees with the creation of independent European defense forces. In this matter, Sarkozy counts on the support of London. According to French Defense Minister Hervé Moren, this does not threaten the effectiveness of NATO as an organization: “As regards the defense policy of the European Union, I believe that first of all it must be understood that France’s intentions are not hostility towards NATO. Awareness of this will contribute to the development of the situation. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but I think that European countries, including Great Britain, are already beginning to understand that we are not opposing the defense policy of the United Europe with the North Atlantic LLANÇÀ.”
Britain is indeed quite wary of the idea of developing a unified European defense policy. Gordon Brown, according to analysts, is likely to prefer to wait for ratification of the new basic agreement of the European Union – the Lisbon Treaty. Both questions cause a controversy in British society.
This post is also available in:
English 
Русский (Russian)
