EU is going to create a common army
Since 2016, there have been significant advancements in the areas of security and defense, thanks to real European initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation and strengthening Europe’s defense capabilities. Here’s a look at the most recent developments.
Great expectations for a European defense
Europeans expect the EU to ensure peace and security. According to a special Eurobarometer survey on security and defense published in 2017, 75% of Europeans support a common security and defense policy for the EU. More than half of the population, or 55 percent, supports the creation of a European army.
According to a recent poll conducted by Eurobarometro in March 2018, 68 percent of Europeans want the Union to do more in terms of defense. The same percentage is found when only considering the responses of Italian citizens.
The European leaders have realized that no one member state can stand alone against security threats. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron gave the green light to a joint military project, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech to the European Parliament in 2018:
“we have to work with the prospect of eventually establishing a real European army.”
The Lisbon Treaty (Article 42(2)) legitimizes the EU’s common defense policy. However, the Treaty also establishes the foundation of national defense policy, which includes NATO membership and neutrality.
In recent years, the European Union has begun to put ambitious initiatives into action in order to provide more resources, boost efficiency, facilitate cooperation, and support the development of new capabilities.
Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) was announced in December 2017. To date, 25 EU member states have signed up to participate. Operate on 47 collaborative projects with criminals, including a European Medical Command, a Marine Surveillance System, reciprocal cyber-security assistance, fast response teams, and a European Intelligence School.
The European Defence Fund (EDF) was established in July 2017. For the first time, the EU budget is being used to help fund defense cooperation. The eurodeputies decided on April 29 to fund the fund with 7.9 billion euros from the Union’s long-term debt (2021–2027). The EDF would supplement national investments by providing practical and financial incentives for collaboration in the research, development, and acquisition of new military equipment and technologies.
The EU has expanded its cooperation with NATO to 74 projects spanning six different areas, including cyber-security, community exercises, and counter-terrorism.
There is also a framework for facilitating military mobilization across Europe, so that personnel and equipment can respond and arrive in crisis zones more quickly and easily.
The financing of civilian and military missions has been found to be more efficient. L’UE currently has 17 missions spread across three continents, each with a different type of mandate and employing over a thousand people, both military and civilian.
Since July 2017, a new command and control structure has been in place to improve EU crisis management.
Spending more, spending better, spending together
According to the NATO Summit in Galles in 2014, UE NATO members are required to pay 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2024. The European Parliament has asked the countries to keep this promise.
According to NATO’s 2019 statistics, only five countries (Grecia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Lithuania) spend more than 2% of their GDP on defense.
However, establishing a European defense force is not only a matter of cost, but also of efficiency. . The Member States put together are second only to the United States for military expenditure, but estimates that around EUR 26.4 billion are wasted every year due to duplication, overcapacity and procurement obstacles.
The European Parliament has once again requested that all of the potential of the Lisbon Treaty be used to move towards a European Defense Union. The European Parliament supports cooperation, increased investment, and the pooling of resources in order to build European synergies and better protect citizens.
Aside from practical difficulties, the EU must reconcile various military and strategic cultures. The European Parliament believes that a white book on defense would be a useful tool in securing the future of a European defense policy.
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The EU military force as it stands
Europe has a military force that can be used to stabilize crisis areas around the world; it is not a common European army, but it is something that assuages them. The topic of a genuine European army has been debated in Brussels since 1954.
That year, in fact, the plan for a European Defence Community, strongly desired by De Gasperi, collapsed.
We’ve already stated that something that arouses a lot of interest in a European exercise does exist. So much so that since his official birth year of 2003, he has overseen 37 operations all across the world. On the opening infografica, it can be seen that 18 Common Security and Defense Policy (Csdp) missions and operations are now underway, with 11 civilians and 7 military personnel.
The goal of all types of missions is to maintain peace, prevent conflicts, support the rule of law, and, in general, increase international security. It is this that the European Union intervenes directly, through diplomacy or the deployment of military contingents, with the consent of the Commission and the European Parliament, in even distant countries. For historical and sociological reasons, Africa is undoubtedly the continent in which Europe has invested the most.
The most recent operation approved by the European Union is the Eutm-Rca in 2020, a multinational training mission based in Bangui, Republic of Central Africa.
The initiative is indicative of how European military power shifts: first, there is diplomatic and civic support, then, in rare cases, there is actual military support. Furthermore, we are on the verge of completing a training mission, i.e., providing strategic and tactical competencies relevant to local realities. Eight member countries (France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Switzerland) and five European countries (though not members of the Union) are represented in the Central African Republic.
