Publication

However, relations between NATO and the EU only partly live up to the agreed principles of "strategic partnership" - this is one finding of an analysis of the two organisations’ cooperation in the preparatory phase of Althea and the first year of the operation. The greatest deficits exist between the political committees of NATO and the EU. Since all decisions require consensus in both organisations, and the number of members has increased, it is here that problems are most likely to occur. Different ideas and divergent interests delayed decisions in the lead-up to Operation Althea.