NATO

: NATO flag (Photo: NATO)

Defence organisation for many European countries, Canada and USA.

Headquarter in Brussels. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the major Western defence organisation with former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as secretary general.

Notes

- The Treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1949 contains 14 articles, among these the commitment to collective mutual defence and security in Article 5.

- The WEU has an automatic mutual defence clause in Art. 5 of the Treaty of Brussels.

- NATO makes decisions by unanimity.

- France will enter the military structures of NATO in 2009.

The future

The Lisbon Treaty envisages close ties between the EU and NATO. The EU is supposed to control and make up a European pillar within NATO and at the same time be able to participate in military operations independently of both NATO and the UN.

France in particular is working more for an independent European defence policy, much to the distress of the USA. The Lisbon Treaty proposes a closer joint defence policy among some of the interested EU countries.

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