Cook calms neutrals on defence link with France

Britain has reassured the EU's neutrals, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Austria, by clarifying that its recent EU defence initiative with the French was not intended to create a mutual defence obligation among member-states but to enhance the Union's peace-keeping capacity.

The assurance, given by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, in a speech to the summit on Friday, was warmly welcomed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, who said the priority of the Union at present should be to put the provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty in place.

He said there was still a "state of abstractness" about the Franco-British initiative announced 10 days ago at St Malo, but if it was confined to the Amsterdam framework and to strengthening the EU capacity for what are known as the "Petersberg tasks" of peace-keeping and crisis management then it was welcome. Members of NATO commit themselves under Article Five of their treaty to the automatic defence of fellow member-states if they come under attack. That is a commitment the neutrals have always seen as the hallmark of a military alliance and the definition of non-neutrality.

The same obligation arises for full members of the Western European Union, the organisation of NATOs' European members - hence the difficulty for neutrals in the suggested incorporation of the WEU into the EU during the Amsterdam negotiations. When the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, launched his defence initiative at the Poertschach summit in October, his emphasis had been largely on a general aspiration to strengthen the EU's capacity to act militarily on the world stage without specifying the institutional mechanisms to do so.

British sources suggested, however, that the British government was considering either abolishing the WEU as an intermediary between the EU and NATO, or splitting its functions between the two organisations. In theory, the removal of the WEU's Article Five commitment and the confining of its role to Petersberg tasks might make its incorporation into the Union more acceptable to neutrals, but whether the British are thinking specifically along those lines is still not clear.

During the summit debate, Mr Andrews welcomed the British clarification as did the Swedish Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, and the Finnish President, Mr Martii Ahtisaari.

The summit declaration reflects the concern of the member-states to give the Amsterdam Treaty's provisions "credible operational capacity". It welcomes the St Malo declaration.