Regionalizing security

The NATO Council held in Brussels in January 1994 recognised the importance of defining a specifically European identity in relation to security and defence. The first steps towards this were taken at the NATO Council held in Berlin on 3 June 1996 with the development of the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTF), to which the Ministers of the Alliance subscribed at the January 1994 summit as a means of using NATO's military capacity in operations led by the Western European Union (WEU) under its political control and strategic management. Europe will also have elements within NATO's military structure carrying out command functions and wearing two hats: NATO's and Europe's. European command dispositions of this kind should be identifiable and sufficiently well structured to ensure that a militarily coherent and effective operational force can be put together at speed.