AF. Rasmussen attempts to circumvent Cathy Ashton. The maneuver fails

The rapprochement between the European Union and NATO is stalling. And always for the same reasons that the reader of this blog now knows: the dispute between Cyprus and Turkey. This does not prevent certain pragmatic solutions from being developed, such as for the battlegroups (in which Turkey took part) or Afghanistan (on the protection of Eupol's European police officers by NATO forces). But there is no general agreement.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was determined to move his case forward and put pressure on the Europeans. So he recently contacted Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council. Official objective: to examine how NATO and the EU can come closer together. Unofficial objective: to circumvent the High Representative, Cathy Ashton, and to divide the Europeans a little. The maneuver failed this time. Herman Van Rompuy's first instinct was to agree to such a meeting. But he invited Cathy Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, to join them. It was therefore finally around a breakfast for three that the former Danish Prime Minister tried, on Tuesday morning, to convince the Europeans to make a gesture towards Turkey, by resuming his classic argument already developed in Palma de Mallorca he a year ago. The solution has not yet been found...