No. 1 (31/02/97)       A month of the euroatlantic integration (December 1996)

December 2

• The USA is not giving up the plan of extending NATO to the East, but Russia is still against it. The two powers are also of a different opinion about what kind of role the Organisation for Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should play in the future safety structure. This is implied in the conversation between Tsernomirdin Russian Prime Minister and Al Gore American sub-president at the summit of OSCE in Lisbon.
• Maybe one or two Eastern-European applicants can have a real chance to become a member of the European Union before 2003, said Jacques Santer, President of the EU's Brussels Committee, in his statement given to the British daily, Financial Times.
• The NATO must be extended, but partner relations are needed between the extended NATO and Russia - emphasised Aleksander Kwasniewski, Polish head of state in his interview given to the French daily, Libération.

December 3

• At the OSCE's summit in Lisbon an agreement was made about the re-negotiation of the contract made on the reduction of European traditional arms. An old Russian request was fulfilled with this and obviously it was partly the reason why Moscow acted against the extension of the NATO less severely than expected at the summit. It is still improbable though that Russia will ever give their blessing to the NATO membership of their ex-associates. They could not have it accepted that the main trustee of the new European safety system should be OSCE instead of NATO but they made the Italian Prime Minister and the French president have a more careful standpoint than earlier in the question of extension.

December 5

• Probably there will be a meeting of the heads of state and the government of the NATO membership countries in the first two weeks of July 1997 where a resolution will be made on the extension of the organisation - said the ANSA Italian news agency referring to diplomatic resources in Brussels.
• In his statement Boris Yeltsin Russian president confirmed the Russian standpoint rejecting the extension of the NATO to the east. "I find the plan of the extension of the North Atlantic Organisation to the east unfavourable. I believe that it will cause damage to Europe" - he said.
• According to William Perry American Minister of Defence to calm down Russia NATO should declare that they do not intend to extend their nuclear bases to the Eastern European countries that have been designated to join. Perry said to the journalists that Moscow's worries about this are unfounded.

December 8

• Klaus Kinkel German Minister of Foreign Affairs said that Bonn still tries to move their NATO partners to consider Moscow's safety interests when talking about the eastern extension. In Europe safety can be examined only together with Russia, it cannot be realised next to or against it - said Kinkel.

December 9

• The countries that join the NATO will be membership states of full rights. They will have all the advantages and obligations that derive from the membership. The present confederates will have to undertake the obligation to protect the safety of the new membership states, but it is also valid the other way round - said Javier Solana, the Secretary General of the NATO in his statement.
• In a certain sense we provide a service for the Eastern European readers who are informed from our critical articles well in time about what gives cause for alarm in the European Union - said Jacki Davis, chief editor of the weekly European Voice. The latest issue of the weekly that is published in Brussels it was stated that none of the Central Eastern European countries will be able to come up to all the EU expectations before 2000.

December 10

• It will be announced at the summit of the leaders of the NATO membership states on 8-9th June 1997 as to which countries will be invited to join the North Atlantic Organisation. According to the plans the charter that settles the relationship of NATO and Russia will be also signed at the summit, but the organisation will be extended even if the negotiations with Moscow fail. In Brussels NATO's ministers of foreign affairs also agreed that they will not put atomic weapons in the new member countries.
• "In today's Europe NATO does not intend and does not even need to station atomic weapons on the territory of any of its new Central Eastern European members" - said Warren Christopher, American minister of foreign affairs at the NATO conference in Brussels.

December 11

• Moscow is still against NATO's extension to the east, but they are ready to accept the organisation's offer of dialogue about the creation of a special safety partnership, and they find it possible that in some time it might lead to the institutionalisation of the relations. This was the reaction of Jevgenij Primakov Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs to the resolutions which were made at the Brussels summit of NATO's council and which confirmed the organisation's devotion to accept new members and the offer to Moscow that they should start an official dialogue about the creation of a strategic partnership.
• Italy supports Hungary's intention to join the European Union and NATO without reservation - emphasised Luigi Scalfaro Italian head of the state in his speech.

December 12

• First of all Russia is against the extension of NATO because of psychological reasons, and they know that its safety risks are minimal with respect to the country - said Javier Solana, Secretary General of NATO in his first radio interview after the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs in Brussels. At the same time the chief secretary was of the opinion that the relationship between NATO and Moscow were improving.

December 14

• G. Javlinskij, representative of the Russian Duma had the following opinion about the extension of NATO: though the fact of the extension will mean the failure of the Russian foreign policy to a certain extent, it does not mean a military danger to the country.
• Vladimir Meciar Slovakian head of state was of the opinion that it is the opposition parties that are really against NATO and EU membership, this is why they say lies abroad about the government's policy.

December 15

• The chances for Romania and Hungary to become members of the European Union and NATO have improved significantly after the two countries finalised their bilateral basic agreement - said Emil Constantinescu in his statement after the EU summit in Dublin.
• Hervé de Charette French Minister of Foreign Affairs asserted his reservations in connection with the extension of the European Union. The leader of the diplomacy of Paris was of the opinion that the extension cannot be followed by the dilution of the spirit of the original community or by the collapse of the Union's institutional system. The minister of foreign affairs said: Paris intends to use the possibility offered by the acceptance of new member states for an extensive reform of the EU as the institutions that were originally planned for six member states do not always operate efficiently with the fifteen member states they have presently.

December 17

• The series of Austrian objections against the Hungarian EU accession has taken a new turn: according to the Die Press Jörg Haider the leader of the Austrian Liberal party assured Karl Stix province leader about his support in the matter. According to Haider: the Austrian government politicians do not realise that the eastern extension "without any conditions" is inadmissible.

December 18

• Igor Rodionov Russian Minister of Defence emphasised the rejection of the extension of the NATO in his press conference in Brussels. On the other hand, a week before that Jevgenij Primakov Minister of Foreign Affairs explained for a long time why NATO's Eastern European extension cannot be accepted, and at the same time he approved that an agreement should be made between Russia and NATO.
• On the basis of their achievement so far I find that Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have become mature for Europe - said Peter Schachner-Blazizek, president of the Social Democrats in Styria to the Die Presse. The provincial president of the Austrian Social Democratic Party is of the opinion that those who reject the eastern extension are making a political mistake.

December 19

• "I believe that the intergovernmental conference will be finished in the middle of 1997 and six months after that the EU accession negotiations will be started" - said Hans van den Broek, the member of the European Committee responsible for foreign relations in his interview.
• The citizens of the European Union's member states would welcome Hungary first of all from the Eastern European states - as it turned out from the survey of the EU's public opinion research institute.
• Vladimir Meciar Slovakian head of government confirmed that in Slovakia a referendum will be held in May in connection with the country's EU and NATO membership. At the same time he agreed that Slovakia may be left out from the group of the countries that will be first of all appointed for accession.
• In the first turn of NATO extension the USA would like to see the "peaceful, democratic and capitalist" Slovenia among the members rather than Slovakia that is sinking into autocracy. One of the reasons for it is that by leaving Slovakia out the geographical continuity can be created like this between Hungary and NATO's present territory - said the respectful Foreign Report, the British special publication that deals with strategic research, in one of its articles.

December 20

• The IFOR that was formed to accomplish the Dayton peace pact was replaced by the SFOR (Bosnian stabilisation forces) with a mandate for 18 months. There are also Hungarian technician soldiers in the SFOR as well as in its predecessor.

December 21

• Igor Rodionov Russian Minister of Defence said on the Russian television that the cold war with the USA had not finished. According to the minister it can bring back the cold war if they leave Russia out of consideration when extending the NATO to the east.

December 27

• Whatever they say to Russia in connection with the planned extension of NATO, they know well in Moscow that the real aim of the North Atlantic Organisation is the military deterrent and political weakening of the legal predecessor of the ex-super power, the Soviet Union - written in the Niezavisimaia Gazeta.