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The dispute over the northern part of Cyprus, which is still occupied by Turkish troops and whose independence is recognised only by Ankara has unsettled EU-Nato relations ever since Cyprus joined the EU in 2004. Ankara has vetoed any attempt at opening access to classified Nato documents to the Greek Cypriot authorities, while Cyprus has been blocking Turkish participation in EU defence activities.
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.The EU should include non-EU contributors to the military decision-making process, it should conclude a security agreement with Turkey and an arrangement between Turkey and the European Defence Agency," Mr Rasmussen said.
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"On our side, it should be accepted that Cyprus is a country that deserves a seat at the table when we are having a dialogue between the EU and Nato," he said.
Just as in past meetings, Cyprus' ambassador to the EU's political and security committee was not invited at the Tuesday gathering, which is based on a series of practical arrangements called the "Berlin plus" agreements, allowing Nato to offer its technical support to EU-led missions, such as the one in Bosnia.
In some European capitals, this bilateral row is already starting to be seen as increasingly embarrassing, especially since more and more EU countries need to slash public spending, with parallel EU and Nato programmes translating into unnecessary additional and costly expenditures.
Berlin, for instance, has already been voicing its concern with Greek and Turkish authorities to stop treating each other as if they were still at war over the divided island of Cyprus and cut down their defence budgets
