Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which of the 28 member states of the European Union are not members of NATO; and whether they intend to encourage those member states to join NATO.

There are 6 Member States of the European Union who are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO): Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Sweden. Of these, all except Cyprus are official NATO Partners, cooperating both through NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace programme.

The UK is committed to NATO’s Open Door policy, as enshrined in Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, which provides that any European state in a position to further the principles of the treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area may apply to join NATO. It is for individual States to consider whether they wish to apply for NATO membership, taking into account their own defence and security considerations.