Europeans Hopeful on Non-NATO Military

Foreign and defense ministers from nine West European countries expressed confidence Tuesday that they will be able to work out a compromise over a controversial proposal for a joint military force outside NATO.

The one-day conference of the Western European Union ended with no clear agreement about a European multinational brigade. But participants indicated that consensus is possible in December, when the European Community holds a summit in the Netherlands.

“There has been some movement,” British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd told reporters after the meeting.

Britain has resisted the concept of a joint foreign and security policy for the EC out of concern that it might erode the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. All EC members belong to the Western European Union--established in 1955 for collective self-defense and political cooperation--except Ireland, Greece and Denmark.

France and Germany are at the forefront of the move to create a Western European Union corps of 50,000, which could conceivably be deployed, if called upon, in conflicts that affect European interests but are outside the NATO theater.

Germany, in particular, links agreement on European economic and monetary union with clear progress on political union, such as giving the European Parliament greater powers and forging a joint foreign and security policy.

“We talk about the common defense of Europe by Europe, and Britain talks about the politics of common defense,” French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said. “It has become more and more evident that the alliance is the most important instrument of defense, but that doesn’t bar Europeans from thinking about their own security in Europe and for Europe.”

Hurd said he was encouraged by the French willingness to acknowledge that NATO has primary responsibility for European defense. However, Britain’s “biggest area of concern” is still duplication between NATO and a new Western European Union force.

In what was seen as a subtle softening of its position, Hurd said Britain accepts that “there should be links between WEU and political union.”