BERLIN, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The European Union and NATO are not coming together because observers are afraid of too much U.S. involvement, a top NATO official said in Berlin.
A remarkable separateness remained between the two bodies, mainly "because too many doubters" kept them apart for fear of too much U.S. influence, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Tuesday at a European defense and security policy conference hosted by the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to Deutsche Welle Online, said the potential in the EU-NATO strategic partnership agreement "has yet to be used," calling for the quick establishment of a joint European defense system.
De Hoop Scheffer said NATO needed more help in some of its missions, namely in Afghanistan.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said at the same conference that most EU nations did not spend enough money on defense, missing the body's joint targets for 2010.
