DEFENCE: ITALY AGAINST UNDERMINING NATO WITH EU HEADQUARTERS.

The Italian EU Presidency is sounding sceptical about a proposal from four Member States to set up an EU military planning headquarters (HQ) in Tervuren, just outside Brussels. Responding to questions from the press after meeting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on September 17 in Brussels, Italy's Defence Minister Antonio Martino said: "We believe the EU should have an operational and planning mechanism. This does not necessarily mean giving birth to a new operational HQ which can be interpreted as an alternative to NATO or hostile to NATO. There are other possible solutions. We are exploring them, we have our own proposals, and we are going to discuss them with other Defence Ministers" (at the October 3-4 informal EU Defence Ministerial in Rome). Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg hatched the...