Prague Capabilities Commitment (PCC)

NATO Heads of State and Government agreed to firm, country-specific targets and deadlines for improving existing and developing new capabilities in specific areas. The Alliance has put in place measures to track and monitor progress.

The aim is to ensure that NATO can fulfil its present and future operational commitments and fight new threats such as terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

This is particularly important as NATO takes on new missions in faraway areas such as Afghanistan. These missions require forces that can be quickly deployed to distant areas to perform a wide range of missions, and to remain in theatre for significant periods.

What does this mean in practice?

Under the Prague Capabilities Commitment, member countries agreed to improve capabilities in more than 400 specific areas, covering eight fields essential to today’s military operations:

• Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence;
• Intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition;
• Air-to-ground surveillance;
• Deployable and secure command, control and communications;
• Combat effectiveness, including precision-guided munitions and suppression of enemy air defences;
• Strategic air- and sealift;
• Air-to-air refuelling;
• Deployable combat support and combat service support units.

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How did it evolve?

Efforts to improve the Alliance’s operational capabilities began at the April 1999 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., where Allied leaders launched the Defence Capabilities Initiative (DCI).

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Which NATO bodies have a central role?

The Executive Working Group, which is made up of defence counsellors from NATO delegations, oversees work on the PCC.