–Plan would create EU rapid deployment force to cope with emergencies
–Joint force aimed at supplementing NATO, boosting European military defense
By Silvia Marchetti
ROME (MaceNews) – The Ukrainian crisis is bound to accelerate the creation of a European Union military force and move toward a common defense policy, which the EU now lacks, said Italian ruling coalition sources.
The EU Council and other European institutions, alongside national governments, are expected to advance talks in the next few weeks on a new military plan – dubbed ‘Strategic Compass’ – for creation and speedy deployment of a European army, which officials are confident will come into being ahead of the initially-scheduled 2025 launch date.
“We will be discussing the draft plan, and defining ways to improve it in coming weeks, so there will be progress on this front by the end of France’s six-month EU presidency set to terminate in June. By then European countries will have agreed on an initial roadmap. The Russian-Ukrainian war is acting as a trigger, accelerating talks and the need to create a joint army between member states,” said an official.
Rome’s government, alongside Paris and Berlin, is spearheading the adoption of a joint European military force with the goal of being militarily parallel but independent from NATO.
“The US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the instability it caused in the region, was a sort of wake-up call. It prompted us (European nations), to finally take important steps forward in building a strong common defense policy to protect our boundaries. We can’t always rely on NATO. And even though Ukraine may not yet be part of the European Union, it is part of Europe,” said another source.
Europe’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) came in 1999, a very late stage in the history of European integration, although calls for a common army had been around since the end of World War II. The Ventotene Manifesto, an EU building block written in 1941 by one of its founders, Altiero Spinelli, argued for the need to have common troops to stave off future totalitarianisms.
According to the ‘Strategic Compass’ roadmap, EU countries will move toward a stronger, more coordinated military defense policy and the creation of ‘emergency’ intervention units – dubbed ‘EU Rapid Deployment Capacity – to deploy when the need arises, and wherever this may be.
Such units, composed of at least 5,000 soldiers, would be the embryo of a European army, which would be ‘flexible and inter operational,’ with specific headquarters within the European Union. The units would handle all sorts of emergencies, including the evacuation of civilians, ensuring human corridors for refugees, and guaranteeing airport safety. EU treaties also entail the use of force if needed, for instance, defending EU boundaries from external threats.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, sources noted, each country has provided some sort of military defense support at the Ukrainian borders by sending national units, not European units, and earmarking funds to support Ukrainian war refugees within national budgets.
“Going forward, all these fragmented measures will be made under one single EU-led operation, like it has been for sanctions against Moscow, thereby multiplying the intervention force,” said a source.
Theoretically, Europe does have a military unit (of roughly 1,500 troops) but it has never been deployed, not only because there was so far no need, but because there must be a unanimous decision by the European council, meaning that one country has power of veto to block operations.
Talks under the French EU semester presidency will also address the possibility of by-passing the veto power to allow countries willing to intervene to move ahead and join forces, said sources.
In case of an emergency, the decision-making process would thus be quicker by paving way to a temporary ‘multi-speed’ Europe, with some countries going forward and jointly deploying their military units while those against the intervention could simply opt out.