The EU, NATO and the Treaty of Lisbon: Still Divided Within a Common City

Abstract

Both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) speak of their mutual importance to each other, yet their relationship is both ill-defined and sensitive. The EU insists that the continuing development of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is essential to the Union’s aspirations to be a global actor and key strategic partner. Meanwhile, NATO’s recent and well-publicised New Strategic Concept (NSC) underlined its ability to assume new challenges and thus enhance its relevance. This chapter considers the extent to which the Treaty assists the EU to form a strategic vision for itself what this means for its relationship with NATO. Special attention is given to the place of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the role of the European Defence Agency (EDA) in the Treaty. The conclusions argue that the Lisbon Treaty does little to actually change CSDP, or to fundamentally realign EU-NATO relations. The changes introduced by the Treaty either codify existing practices or serve as tools to encourage development of the policy area by the EU Member States. The development of what may appear to be overlapping mandates by both the EU and NATO is generally exaggerated but, even where there is overlap, they remain unlikely to lead to zero-sum competition between the organisations in the short to medium-term. As a whole, the findings of this chapter point to co-existence as the remaining norm for the indefinite future of EU-NATO relations in the post-Lisbon era.

Dr. Simon Duke—Professor at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), Maastricht. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the European Union Studies Association conference in Boston in March 2010. My thanks are due to the participants who made critical but constructive comments. The earlier and shorter version was first published as an article in Studia Diplomatica (2011, volume 64 (2)) and parts are reproduced here with kind permission of the editor, Prof Sven Biscop.