Finland, Sweden and a new transatlantic relationship

Brussels residents joke that NATO and the European Union are headquartered in the same city but exist on different planets. That was perhaps amusing in the past, but the security issues confronting Europe and the U.S. are now too real to dismiss EU-NATO relations with clever phrases. When Finland and Sweden join NATO, the overlap between EU and NATO members among European states will be nearly complete, and it is an opportune time to forge a new security relationship and modernize the transatlantic alliance. This could give the EU greater weight in security affairs and reduce the overall burden on…