Belgian national Eddy Groenen served as Deputy Legal Advisor at NATO for more than 30 years, working behind the scenes to shape the Alliance’s legal affairs. He was consulted on major documents and agreements with partner countries, providing legal advice and overseeing the signing of numerous memoranda. Read on to learn more about some developments that influenced his work, and how important the North Atlantic Treaty and NATO are to him.
Eddy’s journey to NATO
In 1980, Eddy graduated in Law from the University of Leuven in Belgium, and in 1982 he obtained a Master’s Degree in International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. Before joining NATO, he worked as a legal advisor in both private and public institutions, including the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich, Germany, where he developed his expertise in international law – a skill he later relied on at NATO. At the Belgian Red Cross, he deepened his knowledge of international humanitarian law, which proved useful when NATO embarked on out-of-area operations – meaning all the missions led outside the territory of the Allies. He also gained experience in the field of insurances and risk management. These diverse early roles provided good preparation for the broad array of legal work he would engage in for the following 30 years at NATO.
“I’ve always had a keen interest in public international law, the law and functioning of international organisations, as well as world politics. So, when there was an opportunity to join NATO in Brussels, I did not doubt,” he says.
Eddy joined the Office of the Legal Advisor (now Office of Legal Affairs) at NATO Headquarters in Brussels in 1991, two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at a moment when Germany was reunified and the Soviet Union had collapsed. “At that time some wondered where the enemy was and suggested that NATO could be dissolved. History proved them quite wrong!”
When Eddy joined the legal office, it only consisted of three people: the Legal Advisor, the Deputy Legal Advisor – Eddy – and an assistant. The office provided legal support to the work of the different Divisions, Independent Offices and NATO Agencies. The team also worked on legal issues related to NATO-led operations, partnerships and enlargements, the status and functioning of NATO representations in third countries, as well as matters related to the work of the NATO Committees, human resources and the security of information, premises and personnel.
“Having witnessed the war firsthand, I feel strongly that NATO’s peacekeeping deployments paved the way for the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, which ended three-and-a-half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Former NATO Secretary General Manfred Wörner was committed to NATO intervening and halting the conflict, which eventually happened in 1995.”
The focus on legal issues
Eddy was involved in the signing of many official documents between NATO and third parties, and provided legal advice. Among other things, he was in charge of drafting agreements required in the context of NATO-led operations outside Allied territory. In particular, he worked on the status of forces agreements (SOFAs), which set out the terms under which the armed forces of NATO countries are allowed to operate while stationed on the territory of another state. In addition, he managed transit agreements, necessary to move through third countries in order to reach the area of operations. Eddy also handled the finalisation of financial arrangements between NATO and partners that were willing to contribute to a NATO-led operation.
Despite the many challenges he faced in terms of preparations and negotiations, he always liked the broad scope of legal issues he had to deal with.
Sometimes, given the number of Allies and third parties involved, negotiations could be tense and complex. But as Eddy explains, “it always came down to reminding participants that if there was a political will to come to an agreement, then there was always a solution to legal impediments”. This approach helped foster consensus and keep talks moving forward.
Dealing with partnerships
In 1990, the Allies extended “a hand of friendship” – as they called it – to former adversaries from Central and Eastern Europe. “The end of the Cold War and the new situation in Europe brought about new states and new political elites that were eager to join, out of their free will, a collective defence organisation like NATO,” Eddy says. With the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme – set up in the early 1990s to enhance stability and security throughout Europe – and the open-door policy, the Allies intended to reach out to these countries and work together on issues of common interest at a pace determined by the partner country concerned. “It was also the start of a wave of accession requests eventually leading to 14 countries joining NATO in less than two decades”, Eddy explains. The enlargement processes required extensive consultations between Allies, NATO staff and the candidate country. “The role of the legal office in accession talks was basically two-fold,” he describes. “First, to explain the formal steps that had to be taken before a new member state could accede to the North Atlantic Treaty and, secondly, to explain and help prepare a candidate country’s accession to the other NATO treaties, as well as the acceptance of and compliance with the legal framework of the Organization.”
He adds, “working with the legal staff of various partner countries with different legal background too was not only challenging but also enriching. I still recall how close the historical ties of some Central European countries had been with some of the Western Allies.”
Out-of-area operations
On 14 December 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in Paris, France, bringing an end to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the bloodiest and most violent conflicts in Europe since the Second World War. This agreement is considered as a milestone for the Organization’s post-Cold War transformation as it resulted in its first major crisis response operation. “This was an entirely new situation for NATO also from a legal point of view. It was the first time in its history that NATO had to put proper legal provisions in place to give legal protection to Allied service men and women operating under NATO command but outside NATO territory.” At the same time such a NATO-led operation required transit agreements with neighbouring and other countries in order to enable NATO to reach the theatre of operations. “Worth noting,” he also says, “is that the experience gained and the legal instruments used for IFOR (Implementation Force), later SFOR (Stabilisation Force), continued to be the examples to work from for future NATO-led operations like the Kosovo Force and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.”
A monumental treaty
The North Atlantic Treaty, signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington D.C. by 12 founding members, established NATO as a collective defence alliance aimed at ensuring the security and stability of its member countries. The treaty enshrines the principle of collective defence, meaning that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all. This principle remains the cornerstone of NATO’s mission to safeguard the peace and security of its member countries. According to Eddy, “the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty can be labelled as monumental because it carried in it, from the very beginning, the elements and mechanisms required for building a solid, credible and truly defensive Alliance.”
For him, “NATO remains indispensable, as at its origin, for the safety and defence of its member states and their populations.” As he points out, “NATO was and still is an alliance you want to belong to. It is now up to the same member states to uphold that alliance and keep it functioning.”
Eddy Groenen’s message for the Alliance’s 75th anniversary
“In today’s world NATO is as much, if not more, necessary than when it was created in 1949. We, our families, friends and neighbours, all our compatriots deserve that their freedom and prosperity is protected and defended when need be. NATO, as an alliance, remains the best tool to guarantee that safety and defence,” he concludes.
This article is part of the 75th anniversary #WeAreNATO series.
These interviews feature former NATO staff members who share their personal stories and first-hand experiences related to the Alliance’s key moments and historic turning points, such as the Cold War and 1989, the first out-of-area missions, partnerships, 9/11 and more.