Among the core symbols of sovereignty and independence of a country are a flag, a national anthem and armed forces that carry the flag and march in the sounds of the anthem. The EU has up to now had only the first two elements, that is the 12-star flag and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy that doubles at its anthem. If one takes seriously the statement made by the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper during last weekend the EU may well get its own army too, at least in the long run.
It seems that the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, was right after all, when he attempted to block the selection of Mr. Juncker for the Commission Presidency. He suspected that Mr. Juncker would push for more Europe, even a federal Europe, and that is apparently happening already…
Well, not so soon; Mr. Cameron, you may sleep in peace for now, as no army is being amassed on the other side of the Channel threatening the prestige of Britain, even if not Britain itself. Even if a joint EU army were to be created, it would be looking towards the other sides of the continent, the East where Russia is seen as intervening in the internal affairs of Ukraine and in the South, where ISIS is taking root in a post-Western-intervention failed state of Libya. If it did look to the West, such an army would be making sure that Russian military flights close to the UK’s territorial waters would be met with an immediate and stern response.
So what Mr. Juncker did was to state the obvious: that there is a need for a joint army that would bring together the fragmented national armies of the EU countries, for an authoritative projection of strength towards foes and friends alike. The soft power that is Europe today, the giant with the glass feet, would thus be transformed into a real world power, able to defend its people, its values and its interests vis-à-vis state and non-state actors, and to contribute its share towards the stability of the world.
A joint army, as Mr. Juncker indicated, would be a clear sign that there would never be another war between EU countries, not a small achievement if one takes into account that both world wars and other major conflicts started on our continent. This quantum leap in Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) would also give a real meaning to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) that the Union is trying to promote to a large extent unconvincingly over several years now.
Mr. Juncker’s statement practically coincided with the launch of a report entitled “More Union in European Defence”. Drawing on the deliberations of a high-level Task Force chaired by Javier Solana and supported by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the report promotes the idea of establishing a European Defence Union, like the European Monetary Union that was started by a subset of EU member states. Within the framework of existing EU treaties, in response to shared threats and in view of opportunities to save resources (around 26 billion euros per year out of EU country defence budgets totaling some 190 billion), the report makes many good recommendations on how to move European defence integration forward. Among the proposals are the establishment of EU military headquarters, the formation of a dedicated Council of Defence Ministers and increased common funding. The report shies away, though, from actually proposing joint armed forces and instead recommends the establishment of an independent committee to propose a road map of future steps, thus killing any sense of real urgency and inspiration for action.
Bold and urgent steps are warranted towards the establishment of EU armed forces, which would guarantee the security of the Union’s borders, playing the role of the European Pillar of NATO and projecting power independently as necessary, including as mandated by the UN Security Council. This would be a clear move towards more and better Europe on the big issues that matter to all Europeans, and would hopefully be accompanied by less Europe on everyday things that are better regulated at a lower level, in this beautifully diverse but dysfunction-prone mosaic of a union that we have. Of course, any move towards joint European armed forces should also be accompanied by strong accountability mechanisms, to ensure democratic control of the whole enterprise.
The editorial team of Katoikos
