Brussels: Samaras called for synergies from NATO and EU

Speaking at the ongoing Summit Greek Premier Antonis Samaras spoke in favor of the development of synergies between the EU and NATO in the field of security and political defence in Europe.
 
Samaras said that Greece spends 6% of its budget on defense and the development of synergies can reduce costs and improve efficiency.
 
Europe's leaders seek the appropriate balance between the security policy of the EU and NATO, while agreeing that they should improve the operational capability through the use of existing instruments.
 
The debate is whether the operational capability of Europe should continue to grow further with NATO or whether they should develop two autonomous but cooperating mechanisms. The leaders will also discuss the extension of the concept of risk to the security of Europe.
 
The Council will discuss the migration issue as well after the pressure on countries like Greece and Bulgaria due to the developments in Syria. The third issue is the banking union in Europe, which will have to be dealt with by the Greek presidency in the next semester.
 
The Summit will continue tomorrow with the assessment of the EU presidency from Lithuania while Samaras will present the priorities of the Greek presidency for the first half of 2014.