EU could never compete with NATO, says former Latvian minister

The former defence minister of Latvia, Artis Pabriks, has said that the European Union will never be able to compete with NATO in defence matters.

Pabriks made the statement on the air of the Rus.LSM programme “Security in Europe”.

According to Pabriks, instead of competing with NATO, the EU should look for its "niche moments", which could be financial and industrial cooperation and information exchange.

"It is in our interest not to create parallel structures, as there are not enough resources. It is important that the EU does not do in parallel what NATO is already doing", said the former minister.