Laima Andrikienė
Kalba debatuose dėl ES ir NATO santykių
Strasbūras
2018 06 12
Madam President,
in the past years, the EU and NATO have achieved a remarkable degree of cooperation. With many shared members, common interests and challenges, we were working in close cooperation and have stepped up in such areas as hybrid and cyber threats, military operations and exercises, and the fight against terrorism.
Especially we, the EU, have lately shown extensive efforts on defence, with concrete steps: for example, additional investments and better capabilities to share the burden of peace, security and defence equally. The launch of PESCO shows further the potential of how we can strengthen the European contribution within NATO.
EU-NATO cooperation should be further enhanced against hybrid and conventional threats in the East and South of the EU, with NATO remaining the cornerstone of collective defence in Europe. I welcome these steps brought forward and included in this report. They are timely and aimed in the right direction.