BRUSSELS, April 30 (UPI) -- Plans by a quartet of anti-war countries to pool their troops and set up an EU military headquarters outside NATO received a frosty reception on both sides of the Atlantic Wednesday.
Referring to Tuesday's meeting of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg in Brussels, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said: "European security and defense policy cannot be set by three or four countries."
Britain, which has Europe's largest armed forces, was also dismissive of the proposals to set up an EU military command center that could ultimately rival NATO.
"People should stop playing games on defense and get real. Everybody knows that a defense policy worth its name must include the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy," said Peter Hain, the British minister on the EU Convention.
At a meeting of NATO's decision-making North Atlantic Council Wednesday, several ambassadors questioned whether the "gang of four" plans would lead to an increase in military capabilities given the lack of targets in the Brussels declaration.
"Any action to strengthen the European pillar of the alliance is welcome," one NATO official told United Press International. "But how the extra capabilities are to be paid for is unclear from the text."
According to NATO figures, Germany spent 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense last year, Belgium 1.3 and Luxembourg just 0.8 percent. This compares to 2.4 percent for Britain and 3.3 percent for the United States.
Echoing comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, NATO officials also said several ambassadors expressed "concerns about an unnecessary duplication of tasks."
Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, Powell was scathing about moves to set up an EU central command on the outskirts of Brussels.
"Four of the nations of the (European) Union have come together and created some sort of a plan to develop some sort of a headquarters. What we need is not more headquarters. What we need is more capability and fleshing out of the structure and the forces that are already there."
European newspapers were divided over the Belgian-drafted initiative to boost the EU's defense arm.
"Despite their denials of any intention to compete with NATO," said right-leaning French daily Le Figaro, the summiteers "have actually laid the foundations of a European defense vanguard autonomous from the United States."
The London Times newspaper was equally contemptuous of the meeting of Europe's anti-war brigade.
Describing the summit as "one of the most intellectually confused or instead politically dishonest meetings conducted by EU nations," it called the quartet's plans "a divisive and unnecessary strategy."
One of the few papers to spring to the four leaders' rescue was German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, which hailed the beginning of "a new defense-policy era in Europe."
While many politicians and papers were skeptical about the proposals to set up an "EU army," an opinion poll released by the European Commission Wednesday showed that 71 percent of EU citizens back a European defense policy.
