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Recent geopolitical crises, most notably the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, has cemented thinking that the EU cannot rely entirely on the United States or NATO for its protection.
Coincidentally, the initial blueprint for such a plan was presented to EU member states this week. The “Strategic Compass for Security and Defence” is a loose outline of how cooperation across the bloc might work. The document was leaked to CNN in full.
The main proposal is that the EU obtains the capacity to rapidly deploy up to 5,000 troops to deal with numerous potential crises. Rather than a permanent force reporting to a commander in Brussels, these rapid deployment groups will be a collection of troops from across the participating member states, formed to tackle a specific task and commanded from an EU level on that mission. Those tasks could range from an evacuation mission, such as in Afghanistan, to peacekeeping on a border or humanitarian missions.
The document also talks about the need for a joined-up approach in defense procurement, research and intelligence, making the bloc more competitive and efficient. It acknowledges that to do this, national and EU spending would have to increase and focus on filling in the gaps that currently exist across the EU as a whole.
Not all 27 EU countries would be required to participate; however, deploying troops in the name of the EU would require signoff and involvement of member states, and the details of how this would work are yet to be confirmed.
While Euroskeptic derision at the idea of an “EU Army” means this latest proposal is a far cry from the 1999 goal of up to 60,000 troops ready to deploy at any given moment, it’s still ambitious and, unusually for a top down, multilateral EU proposal, is broadly supported by all 27 member states.
However, these are early days and reaching agreement on anything costly from 27 countries who face vastly different security and fiscal concerns will be far from straightforward.
To get…
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Source : cnn
