The idea of creating a single European Army arose with the creation of the European Union, when in the Maastricht treaty 1992 a united Europe’s tasks were defined in the field of security with the prospect of creating a single European Army.
Then one had not remembered this idea for 11 years and returned to it only in April 2003, when Germany, France, Belgium and Luxemburg came out for the enhanced military collaboration between the countries in the European Union to create single and independent from NATO (which means from the USA too) EU Armed Forces.
In September 2003 Germany, France and Great Britain decided to create a European “General Staff”. But this undertaking just ended in plans of forming European Special-Operations Force, for creation of which the European parliament voted only on February 20, 2009. Creation of the European Special-Operations Force subordinating exclusively to the European Union was taken by many European countries as manifestation of independence from NATO, where the United States predominates.
Intentions of the countries in the European Union to create single and independent from NATO armed forces really worried Americans, because it ran counter to their plans on the continent. Nicholas Burns, the United States Permanent Representatives to NATO called then plans of military construction in the European Union “one of the most serious dangers for transatlantic relations.” The United States demanded an immediate and emergency session of political decision-making bodies of the North Atlantic Alliance, access to discussions inside the European Union, as well as right of veto upon its decisions relating to the military field. But the USA’s demand was rebuffed. As Benoît d'Aboville, Permanent Representative of France to NATO said then, the North Atlantic Alliance and the USA do not have the authority to obtain information about internal negotiations in EU until the Union makes a final decision.
Nevertheless, the White House continued to successively stand for the strengthening of the role of the North Atlantic Alliance for enhancing European security, giving a hostile reception to all attempts to create all-European armed forces. Such plans were blocked under plausible pretexts and rejected on the vine not only by the United States, but also by their European “satellites”, first of all from among the East European countries.
But the process continued to develop. In March 2007 Angela Merkel, the German chancellor took a stand for the creation of a single army in the united Europe. The same year defense ministers of Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary (Vyshegradskaya group) declared that their countries agreed to create a single military army jointly with EU approximately by 2015.
In May 2008 the need for accelerating the creation of single Armed Forces of the European Union was initiated by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs. Referring to provisions of Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union, he noted that the group of certain states in the European Union can assume the role of “vanguard” in matters of foreign and defence policy. And Germany and France could become such a vanguard.
July 2009. President of France and President of the European Union Nicolas Sarkozy sent to governments of the countries in the European Union a package of proposals "on further integration in the military field.” In fact the question was about the creation of a single army of the European Union that should be subordinated to the union leadership. Particularly, it was proposed to create single operational headquarters in Brussels to command military operations beyond the EU, a single Air Transport fleet for airlifting troops to places of operations, a single system of military satellites and military academy of the united Europe. Financing of military operations of the European Union must have become general too. But the matter did not get any farther.
On November 19 at the summit of the European Union Italy planned to come forward with an initiative of the creation of single Armed Forces of the united Europe. As Franco Frattini, Italy's Foreign Minister said the day before the summit, presidential election of the united Europe and the creation of the all-European Army are interconnected things and conditioned by the development of the military-political situation in the world today. Rome scared the citizens of the European Union by mythical plans of the USA and China to create the so called Big Two. They say, this strategic alliance, can hereafter substitute the North Atlantic Alliance for the Pacific one. The United Europe, Frattini warned, without an armed doctrine will remain on the margins of the world political processes and it will be taken into consideration by nobody in the world.
According to the minister, the experience of NATO’s military campaign in Afghanistan showed in practice that if the EU had single armed forces, then many tasks would have been solved much easier and each country would not have to send to Afghanistan its own military equipment and arms. Instead of it responsibilities to provide a contingent in Afghanistan would have been shared between all members of the European Union.
Besides, when Barack Obama came to power in the USA, the vision of the European Union’s role in its partnership relations with America has changed. The new President of the USA repeatedly spoke about his wish to see in the name of the European Union a valuable, and what is the most important, a responsible partner, one can rely on. So today Brussels gained, according to the Italian Foreign Minister, new, so to say, “Atlantic” opportunities for forming a general defence policy in the united Europe.
The creation of a single army of the European Union is not only further integration of the union in the military-political sphere. This problem also has a deep economic aspect. Proponents of the creation of the EU Armed Forces say that forming a single army would let optimally use national material resources, assignable by the member states of the union for defense purposes. According to experts, national defense forces availability in each country of the European Union only dissipates means and leads to their waste. Argument for such an assertion is the comparison of the efficiency of the military expenditures use by the EU countries and the USA. Thus, total military budget of the European Community countries is 60 percent of the American military budget. But the military budget of the Europeans hardly reaches 10 percent of the US military budget.
A conclusion can be drawn from this that, having united national military expenditures in an all-European budget, the European Union could significantly raise its defence potential without increasing military expenditures.
It would seem, everything is clear – utility of creation of a single army of the European Union is evident in all aspects. But not everything is so simple. The main thing is that the idea of creation of a single European army is supported only by 38 percent of the population, living in the EU. Namely, most people are opposed to renunciation of national armies. So there appears to be a long way still from the idea of creation of a single European army to its realization.
Perhaps for this reason Italy’s initiative too at the EU summit on 19 November has never been expressed and considered. Therefore this “fruit” of the European Community has not ripened so far. However the first President of the European Union was elected at the EU summit on 19 November. He is Herman Van Rompuy, Prime Minister of Belgium.
