European Union" "
NATO’s “Agenda for change” was fully endorsed at its recent summit in Prague: this is the agenda by which the alliance pledged to reform NATO’s composition, capability and instruments to tackle the new challenges of the present and future (cf. SirEurope no.42 of 21 November 2001). Apart from having “invited” Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join NATO, the heads of state and of government of the Atlantic Alliance, meeting in Prague on 21-22 November, announced the creation of a rapid reaction force (NRF) equipped with state of the art technologies, sufficiently flexible, transportable and equipped to conduct prolonged operations and comprising land, air and sea units ready to be transported wherever necessary according to the Council’s decisions”. The NRF, which is planned to be integrated with EU provisions on defence policy, will be composed of some 20,000 permanent personnel and become operative by the end of 2006. The Summit also made provision for the structural reorganization of military commands. NATO’s intention to “improve military capabilities especially in the countries of the European Union by developing new capabilities for modern warfare in an environment characterized by a high level of threat”, was confirmed in Prague. The new capabilities will particularly be focused on the sectors of defence against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, information gathering, air and land surveillance, air and marine means of transport.
