Lately, leaders of the European Union have been stressing the need for a European Union military. Among them were France's president Sarkozy and
earlier this year, German's chancellor Merkel elaborated her opinion on one European Union Military:
In an interview with the mass-circulation German tabloid Bild Zeitung, German Chancellor and current EU president Angela Merkel marked the EU's
50th birthday celebration by revealing that her wish list includes a European Army. What Merkel and other EU leaders want is not a perpetuating of
existing arrangements, but an "European fighting force" independent of, but working with, NATO.
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The European Union has developed itself into a strong economically and technologically advanced force. However, the union lacks the power to be
militarily capable of defending the Union.
The main motives for creating an EU military force:
The US has always been the EU's brother in arms, however, the severe state of its economy will likely lead to a collapse of the US economy and
likely we will see a similar scenario to that of the Russian army after the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union. As economic superpower the EU cannot rely
on others, in case this scenario would become reality, the Union should be capable of defending its territory
The battle for the natural resources is starting. Russia is trying to prevent the Union from securing its energy supplies from former Soviet States.
No one wants to think of what will happen to Middle Eastern countries with nuclear capabilities once they run out of oil. The chances of wars are
getting bigger, to me personally, it feels like we're waiting for the final count-down.
China will definitely join the race for natural resources. As a matter of fact they've already begun occupying former European colonies to increase
the supply of natural resources to mainland China.
If the EU would form one military it would have an extreme budget, more than halve of the US military budget as the following graph indicates:
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The difference between the US and the EU is the state of economy. The US has been pumping extreme amounts of borrowed money into its military, while
the EU would be able to finance its military in a healthy way.
The EU is technologically very advanced, current co-operation agreements between member states have lead to e.g. the Eurofighter and the A400M
military transport & tanker plane.
Synergies would lead to a cheaper, more efficient way of production, it would create new jobs and strengthen the military force as a whole. German
and Italian tank battalions would be deployed in for instance the Baltic states , while British fighter jets would be deployed in Germany. Depending
on the location a strategy could be worked out to improve defensive capabilities as much as possible. Military bases would be turned into European
Union bases all over Europe.
One problem that came to my mind is the question of who would be in command. In my opinion there should be one central command in Brussels with three
commanders in chief for the air force, navy/coastguard and army from respectively: France, Germany and Britain.
The hostile attitude of Russia, the battle for the resources and the loss of US military strength in the long-term should be motives for preparing for
one united military.
[edit on 17-12-2007 by Mdv2]
