Sweden and Poland yesterday underlined their opposition to any security and defence initiatives taken by the European Union (EU) to compete with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation western defence alliance

Bilateral and multilateral defence initiatives must not be made "in competition with Nato but with solutions complementary to Nato", Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said in a briefing in Stockholm with Swedish counterpart Goeran Persson. Persson said: "The common defence and security policy could be improved, but it must remain open for all (member) states and be transparent." He criticised "small clubs within the EU", and said EU-led defence initiatives would cause "tension for nonaligned countries and countries that already have their security linked to Nato", such as Poland, and countries outside the EU, such as the US. "But I am optimist on finding solutions because the process is going in the right direction. I don't think Britain, Germany and France want to create a situation that feeds worries on relations between the new European security and defence policy and Nato, for example." Britain, France and Germany were reported to have reached an agreement at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Naples late last week to go ahead with plans for an independent planning unit while reaffirming Nato as the main pillar of European security.