Sweden and Poland oppose competition with NATO

Sweden and Poland today reiterated their opposition to any security and defence initiatives taken by the European Union to compete with NATO.

Bilateral or multilateral defence initiatives must not be made "in competition with NATO but with solutions complementary to NATO," Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said in a Stockholm press conference.

His Swedish counterpart Goeran Persson said: "The common defence and security policy could be improved but it must remain open for all (member) states and be transparent".

Reports say that Britain, France and Germany reached an agreement at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Naples late last week to go ahead with plans for an independent planning unit while reaffirming NATO as the main pillar of European security.

The United States in the past has sharply objected to EU operational military planning outside NATO on grounds that it would duplicate NATO planning capabilities and open competition between them for commonly held military resources.