The recently renewed enthusiasm for EU-NATO cooperation has a lot to do with the enduring security challenges facing Europe to East and South. At the same time, the new Trump administration has made it clear that it expects the EU to do more on security and defence. The first steps in the re-enforcement of EU-NATO cooperation were the joint Warsaw Declaration, which identified seven areas of cooperation; the political endorsement of that Declaration at the NATO summit in May 2017; and finally, a report published on the progress made. At this Policy Dialogue, a panel of experts discussed the state of play of EU-NATO cooperation, the impact of recent social and political developments, and the biggest challenges, such as the persistent issue of Cyprus and overall decline in EU defense spending, and the bureaucratic hurdles between the two organisations.

Speakers included: Annegret Bendiek, Senior Associate, Stiftung Wissenshaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin, Alexandros Papaioannou, Policy Officer for NATO-EU relations, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO, and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Alfredo Conte, Head of the Strategic Planning Division, European External Action Service, Ian Lesser, Vice President, Foreign Policy; Executive Director, Transatlantic Centre of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.