“Today’s Action Plan is an essential step to reduce obstacles for military mobility in Europe and hence better protect our citizens. Many policy areas, not least transport policy, will be affected. The European Parliament has an important role to play to make sure that the suggested measures are coherent and effective and will follow the implementation very closely and provide relevant input through an own-initiative report”, said the Chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, David McAllister (EPP, DE).

Chair of the Security and Defence subcommittee, Anna Fotyga (ECR, PL) stated: “This is an important field for EU-NATO cooperation. All parties concerned should support our collective defence in which rapid response capability is essential for the security of Europe. NATO remains the primary security guarantor of Europe and now is the moment for the EU and for NATO to demonstrate their complimentary efforts. When implementing such an important security project we have to remember Member States‘ vital objectives, for example proper access to sea“.

Background

The rapid movement of forces across EU and NATO territories is currently hampered by an array of physical, legal and regulatory barriers. The European Parliament has been requesting progress in this field. Military mobility is also a major project in the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO)and in enshrined in the EU-NATO Joint Declaration of 2016.