NATO & the EU: End the militarisation of Europe A civil Europe? It is often claimed that the European Union should be a union of peace, but if it ever was, it is no longer. Strong evidence for this is the European Union’s close cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); a purely military alliance. The intensified relationship between NATO and the EU primarily strengthens the EU’s relationship with the United States and the military protection of the global neoliberal agenda which is the ‘cement’ that binds these ‘brothers in arms’ together.