Italy calls for creation of EU army

• Source: Global Times
• [02:06 November 17 2009]
• Comments

By Zhang Wen

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for the creation of a "European army"after a more politically united Europe forms following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty at this Thursday's crucial EU summit.

During an interview published Sunday in Britain's Sunday Times, Frattini said the treaty had established "that if some countries want to enter into reinforced cooperation between themselves, they can do so."This was already the case with the euro and the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, and could now be applied to "common European defense,"he added.

Frattini said that it is necessary to establish a European army. He took Afghanistan as an example, saying "many countries sent troops, armored vehicles, tanks and aircraft to Afghanistan. If there were a European army, then the Italians could send out the aircraft, France could contribute tanks, and armored vehicles could be provided by other EU countries ... in that case, one could maximize the use of resources."

Frattini also suggested the establishment of joint EU naval patrols in the Mediterranean.

"Europe could deploy a joint naval fleet or air force in the Mediterranean,"he said.

Last year, when France was about to take over the EU presidency, it had already tried to drive forward ambitious plans to develop Europe's own military structure.

Although it gained Germany's and Poland's support, critics believe an EU army would be crippled by deep divisions among allies and the failure of member states to match US levels of defense spending.

Frattini said he does not think the differences between member states would be a problem, and pointed out that cooperation in Afghanistan gives a model of integrating different systems and equipment.

"There is still a great gap between Europe and the US in terms of military defense. For a long time, Europe has not had its own joint defense force, and it is much dependent on and restricted by the US. It therefore can only be a 'crippled' pole in this multipolar world,"said Chen Hu, chief editor of World Military Affairs.

Frattini expressed the same worries. "If we do not find a common foreign policy, there is the risk that Europe will become irrelevant. We will be bypassed by the G2 of America and China, which is to say the Pacific axis and the Atlantic axis will be forgotten.”

"A European army would not only provide the EU with a greater degree of action in the promotion of its interests and values, it would also contribute largely to stopping the great security dependency on the US that European countries have been experiencing and coping with since the post-war period."Jorge H. Ojeda, a scholar on European politics from Leiden University, told the Global Times.

However, as Frattini said, the EU will not get there immediately.

"Although the scheme is there, further negotiation and agreement is still to be reached. Another big problem is whether the US will stand in the way of forming such an independent joint defense force, because once the scheme goes into practice the influence of the US on European and international affairs will certainly decline,"Chen said.

Ojeda, on the other hand, believes a European army is realistic, "as far as you can see, the EU is achieving a real and effective consensus in the framework of a security strategy.”

Agencies contributed to this story