In this way, the programme helps increase stability, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships.

All members of PfP are also members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), which succeeded the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1987. Whereas the Partnership is founded on the basis of a bilateral relationship between NATO and each individual Partner country, the EAPC provides the overall, framework for multilateral cooperation between NATO and its Partner countries and serves as a forum for political dialogue.

Three of the countries which joined the Partnership since 1994 have subsequently became members of the Alliance. Some Partner countries see their participation as a road strengthening their candidature, whereas many Partners see it as a unique and important way of contributing to peace and security in Europe, without necessarily seeking eventual NATO membership. There is no automatic link between participation and future membership but it is clear that the process of enlargement would favour countries that are active Partners. Indeed, the Membership Action Plan that was launched for aspirant countries in 1999 helps tailor their Partnership activities towards meeting membership requirements. NATO ENLARGEMENT AND THE OPEN DOOR


The drafters of the North Atlantic Treaty foresaw the possibility that other European states might subsequently wish to join the Alliance. Article 10 of the Treaty therefore stated that the Allies may “by unanimous agreement, invite any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty.”

The twelve original members were joined by Greece and Turkey in 1952, Germany in 1955 and then Spain in 1982. No further enlargement took place until 1999, when the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland acceded to the Treaty. A series of developments led up to this event. As democratic governments emerged from the shadow of communism in Eastern and Central Europe at the end of the Cold War, many of the new democracies sought membership in NATO as one of their main national policy objectives. NATO countries reacted to these overtures cautiously, offering the new democracies friendship and cooperation, but not initially membership.

At the NATO Summit Meeting in Brussels in January 1994, Alliance leaders nevertheless reaffirmed that the commitment in Article 10 would be honoured and that NATO’s door would be opened to qualified candidates. The Allies began a study in December 1994 of the “why and how” of NATO enlargement.