EU army looking likely after foreign policy chief pushes forward ambitious plans
11 November 2021 “Morning Star’ newspaper
THE forming of an EU army is looking ever more likely after the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Joseph Borrell, pushed forward an ambitious military doctrine on Wednesday.
“Europe is in danger,” the former Spanish foreign minister warned as he called for agreement on his “guide to action” which would see the development of an emergency military force by 2025.
“We need to have rapid deployment capabilities,” he said, stressing the need to establish a 5,000-strong unit — equivalent to brigade strength.
Mr Borrell claimed that EU citizens favoured implementation of the bloc’s so-called Strategic Compass, the defence and security element of its broader Global Strategy.
The public “want member states to improve their capacities in order to be more effective, and they want to project Europe in the world because they know that our security starts far away from our borders and depends on the security of our partners,” he insisted.
He hinted that the force could be sent to war without the agreement of all 27 EU member states, saying “we cannot decide by unanimity every step of the process.
“What I believe is that this institutional setting can be ‘flexibilised’ in order to act quicker and better,” Mr Borrell said, while insisting he was not abolishing the bloc’s unanimity rule.
“We know that the use of force won’t solve a problem, but we also know that the lack of military might is regarded by the rest of the world as a source of weakness,” he added, saying “it is not enough for the EU to exercise its soft power through trade and human rights policy.”
The unelected European bureaucrat is a leading proponent of increased militarisation for the EU.
His plans to rejuvenate a so-called EU army were given a boost in the wake of the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was described by supporters as “a wake-up call.”
In her annual State of the European Union speech earlier this year Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc “must be able to intervene militarily without the help of the United States but lacks the political will.”
The draft plans will be presented to foreign and defence ministers on Monday. They will be fully approved at next year’s EU defence summit in Strasbourg.
