LOBBYING FOR A COMMON EU DEFENCE POLICY

In December 1998, the heads of state of Britain and France met for a two-day summit in St-Malo, France, to discuss the defence policy of Europe. The resulting declaration asserted that “The European Union needs to be in a position to play its full role on the international stage” . “To this end,” it read, “the Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises” .

In other words, in order to safeguard and promote its interests, to be a credible international actor, it is desirable for the European Union to possess its own military force, or at least the ability to employ military means under the name of the EU and without being subject to the whims or narrow self-interests of any one single member-state.

There is a long path to walk until the vision of a European army can materialize and genuine European troops can actually help to secure international peace. While the Member States of the EU have managed to deeply integrate their economies, European security remains largely neglected – even though it is obvious that the single member states are too small and militarily too weak to effectively engage in international conflicts.

Common problems should be solved together. However, the creation of a European army would diminish the nation states’ sovereignty and therefore remains a measure without consent.

In terms of security policy, the 28 European member states indeed have different beliefs. Finland, Ireland, Austria and Sweden are four militarily neutral states associated with the EU. Cyprus and Malta claim special status and Denmark, as the result of a referendum, does not support any form of joint CSDP actions.

Yet, to be certain, cooperation would result in much more effective acquisition and distribution of materials and know-how. Europe could save billions. This money could be used to foster the invention of new innovative technologies and better equipment. Such a European army should also play a part in creating a common European identity – a fact we should acknowledge these days.

The German federal government supports the model of pooling and sharing. Pooling means national capabilities are being offered to others by installing a multinational structure that combines them and coordinates their usage. For example, pooling can be used to develop, acquire and operate machinery. This has already been done with the Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS). Sharing means one or more countries provide their partners with existing capabilities and machinery (e.g. transport planes) or fulfill tasks for their partners. By doing so, all partners save resources, because they do not need to provide all capabilities themselves. Such a concept needs detailed arrangements; otherwise Member States might accidentally conserve or acquire the same capabilities. This coordinative effort would push Europe quite a few steps ahead on the path to a European army.

Still, first of all we need the willpower – at least by smaller member state groups – to integrate security policies. This includes a precise distribution of responsibilities by the partners.

A real European army can only become true when the political basis for its establishment has been profoundly reformed. It can exist in the absence of neither a common foreign policy nor a shared defense budget. A realistic perspective besides a European army, is that national armies could remain operative. That way the bigger European states could keep some of their military sovereignty. To develop such a dual concept is indeed a sophisticated task – still, the EU Member States should work on it strongly in the coming decades

Military Spending as % of GDP (2012) Source: European Defence Agency  

1. United Kingdom: 2.30 %
2. Estonia: 2.00 %
3. Poland: 1.95 %
4. France: 1.93%
5. Cyprus: 1.92%
6. Greece: 1.69%
7. Portugal: 1.56%
8. Bulgaria: 1.42%
9. Croatia: 1.41%
10. Finland: 1.40%
11. Netherlands: 1.35%
12. Italy: 1.32% Slovenia: 1.32%
13. Romania: 1.26%
14. Germany: 1.23%
15. Czech Republic: 1.17%
16. Denmark: 1.16%
17. Sweden: 1.12%
18. Slovakia: 1.10%
19. Belgium: 1.08%
20. Latvia: 1.04%
21. Spain: 0.95%
22. Lithuania: 0.82% Austria 0.82%
23. Malta: 0.62%
24. Ireland: 0.55%
25. Luxembourg: 0.47%