S OLID FOUNDATION , ROCKY FUTURE ? A SSESSING TRANSATLANTIC DEFENCE AND SECURITY TIES AFTER NATO’ S M ADRID SUMMIT | 11 Cooperation on defence innovation might be curtailed. Indeed, there is clearly a need for coordination between the EU’s well-developed financial tools for defence(in particular the European Defence Fund), the Union’s new initiatives(such as the Defence Innovation Hub (HEDI)) and the Alliance’s brand-new innovation mechanisms(the Innovation Fund and DIANA). It remains to be seen what impact new NATO initiatives for defence innovation will have but ensuring that the Alliance better links its tools with the EU could be a positive step forward in building trust on defence industrial matters. Where the EU and N ATO can cooperate: Military mobility Despite concerns related to the defence-industrial dimension, there are areas where the EU and NATO can successfully cooperate, not least because it is the EU which holds the regulatory and financial firepower to seriously address them. We speak, of course, about challenges such as resilience, countering hybrid threats, and the response to climate change. While the NATO Madrid communique and Strategic Concept talk up all these issues, and while the Alliance certainly has a role in ensuring that European nations do not neglect such security concerns, it will ultimately be up to the EU to deliver on these areas for Europe. Th at being said, joint EU- NATO action should also intensify in areas such as cyber defen ce, space and emerging and disruptive technologies. However, the main area of focus in the coming months and years should be military mobility. Both organisations recognise the importance of secure and efficient transportation infrastructure for Allied forces, and the project has become symbolic of EU- NATO cooperation for several reasons. With the war in Ukraine, it has also become more apparent why such a project is needed. Bringing together 24 EU Member States and three NATO allies(Canada, Norway and the US), the project to better military mobility was once seen as being overly bureaucratic and it excluded key NATO partners. Today, however, the key challenge facing the EU and NATO is whether dual-use infrastructure investments(railways, ports and airfields) can be developed in a timely fashion, and whether EU Member States and NATO allies can addr ess national legal and regulatory barriers to cross-border military movements. While overcoming these challenges has become a key focus for the EU and NATO, the war on Ukraine has raised a further dimension that requires attention. Indeed, military mobility was initially – albeit partially – conceived to deal with rotational NATO troop and equipment movements in central and eastern Europe. Since the Madrid Summit it has become clearer that NATO is also interested in more permanent troop placements as a reassurance measure for eastern flank NATO allies.