Solana urges EU to debate US missile shield, MEPs split on missile shield plan

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has urged European Union member states to debate US plans to install part of its missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland. Speaking in the European Parliament on Thursday, Mr Solana said it was ultimately up to EU capitals to decide whether they joined the United States in the project but they were obliged to ensure that any such participation did not undermine overall security policy in the EU. The US plans to site a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland sparked a fierce debate among MEPs on Thursday, highlighting the risk of an EU rift over the project.

Parts of the anti-missile shield are already in place in the United States, Britain and Greenland, and Pentagon officials say the plan is to have the system operational by 2013. Washington acknowledges that the system primarily protects US soil from attack by "rogue states" like Iran but that it would also shield some, though not all, European allies.