Finland and Sweden have put forward a proposal to NATO on reforming the Partnership for Peace programme in order to make it more efficient.
The proposal, which is called a working paper, was drawn up in advance of the NATO summit to be held in the Latvian capital Riga in late November. NATO is expected to decide on the guidelines of a more efficient partnership, even though final decisions are not to be made until 2008.
The proposal was handed out to participants of a meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council EAPC last week.
The key goal of Finland and Sweden is to get more information at an earlier stage of NATO’s plans for crisis management operations, and to be involved at as early a stage as possible in preparations and in the assembly of forces linked with NATO-led operations.
The two countries also would like to have access to NATO’s classified intelligence information and to see NATO’s operational plans as early as possible.
Finland and Sweden also say that the partners should get more time than they now have for commenting on plans. According to the working paper, at least five working days would be needed.
The goal is to get Finnish and Swedish officers into all of NATO’s levels of command. Under the proposal, NATO should also allow officers of the partners into its headquarters and command systems as soon as a crisis management operation has started.
