Ahead of the NATO summit that will take place in the Latvian capital Riga on 28-29 November, ELDR calls for a clarification of the relationship between the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and NATO. ELDR Party President Annemie Neyts explains that according to the European Liberal Democrats, “the most important difference between ESDP and NATO concerns the role played in the latter by non EU states, and in particular by the United States. In view of this, a profound clarification of the ESDP’s nature vis-à-vis the US is required. Furthermore competition between EU and NATO should be avoided as it could be detrimental to the effectiveness of their respective policies with the available capacities becoming limited.” Europe’s Liberal Democrat parties adopted a resolution on the EU external security and defence policy on 13 October 2006 in Bucharest, Romania, , calling for the progressive development of a fully-fledged European Army. This resolution also points out that the EU cannot limit itself to policing if it is to contribute effectively to the re-modeling of a workable and peaceful world order.ELDR points out that an effective ESDP will require further modernisation of the Member States’ armed forces. Reorientation of spending and investment might not suffice, so that increases in military spending, both at the EU level and by the Member States might be considered.