European Parliament
Belder (IND/DEM ),
on behalf of the group
(NL)
Mr President, in the light of what is happening today, it is difficult to assert that European intervention in the Western Balkans was a resounding success. In order to bring stability to what a German publication eloquently called the ‘restless Balkans’, help was needed from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The bottom line is that NATO is not there for nothing. I am still to some degree reassured by the fact that NATO is still there, and still, too, involved in the European ALTHEA mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The fact is that this whole operation, which we call ‘European’, is founded upon trans-Atlantic cooperation on the basis of the ‘Berlin Plus’ accord between the European Union and NATO. What brings me to this conclusion is the letter of 9 November from the Dutch Presidency to the parliament of the Netherlands. If anything, the ALTHEA mission is something for Europe to be modest about. Moreover, I am convinced that it also puts another big question mark against the idea that a European security and defence policy is useful and necessary. Such an ambition for power can only eventually weaken or undermine NATO, and then, Mr Nicolaï, to use a Dutch expression, all of us in Europe are far from home.

