EU member countries push back on Italy’s call for European army

MILAN – Amid calls for a common European military to stand up to an aggressive Russia and other potential threats, EU members Slovenia, Spain, Denmark and Poland say the idea is unrealistic and unnecessary.

“The EU should have its own army,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani of Italy, a founding member of both the trade bloc and NATO, said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa last month. The official proposed that the fighting force could be involved in peacekeeping missions and preventing conflict.

However, even with war now raging in Europe and a push for stronger defense cooperation across the continent, the proposal hasn’t gained much traction. For starters, there’s little consensus among the 27 nations of the EU on the need for such a force.

“The establishment of this common defense — a necessary framework for the development of a ‘European Army’ – would require a unanimous decision of the Council,” the Spanish Ministry of Defense said in a statement. “If achieving this requirement was almost impossible in 1992, when the EU was composed of 12 member states, a decision by an EU of 27 or more countries in the future, would be very difficult to take – in this context the idea is unrealistic or unaffordable in the near future.”

Furthermore, Europe already has a defense force in NATO, making a separate European-only force unnecessary, according to Denmark, also a member of both organizations.

“NATO is the cornerstone of our collective security, and defense remains a matter of national sovereignty – there is no NATO or EU army, but close defense cooperation between allies and member-states,” the Danish defense ministry said in a statement. “Denmark does not support establishing an EU army.”

This question is also not on the agenda of Slovenia, Aleš Sila, the official responsible for strategic communications at the country’s Ministry of Defense, told Defense News.

In the past, a challenge that has loomed over the EU in regard to successfully achieving the bloc’s priorities has been that member-states tend to implement their defense plans at the national level.

This finding was highlighted in the 2022 Coordinated Annual Review on Defense Report published by the European Defense Agency. The document also found that most EU countries are also part of NATO, and see the military alliance as their primary multilateral orientation.

It is Poland’s view that the two should be seen as complementary rather than as incompatible.

“Poland does not neglect EU actions in the security and defense area – [EU actions] should become complementary to strengthen NATO efforts and contribute to trans-atlantic security,” the Polish ministry of defense said in a statement.

New initiatives, similar roles

The consensus shared by three of the four member-states was that other initiatives have been established that will play a similar role to that of a European army and provide similar capabilities.

The Slovenian, Spanish and Polish ministries all pointed to the development of the EU’s Rapid Deployment Capability, which by 2025 aims to allow the swift deployment of a modular force of up to 5,000 troops in non-permissive environments.

The first RDC deployment exercise took place in Spain in October, during which nine European countries contributed 2,800 military personnel and equipment. The participating states included Austria, Spain, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Romania.

Additional cooperative measures are also being taken amongst other EU member-states individually, as highlighted by the Polish MoD.

“It is our goal to tighten defense cooperation within EU countries, which was manifested on Jan. 30, when the head of the MoD signed a letter of intent on military redeployment procedures with the ministers of the Netherlands and Germany,” it said,

The document, although different from a common military, will facilitate and accelerate the movement of allied troops across the three countries.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——面对建立欧洲共同军队以对抗咄咄逼人的俄罗斯和其他潜在威胁的呼声，欧盟成员国斯洛文尼亚、西班牙、丹麦和波兰表示，这一想法既不现实也不必要。

“欧盟应该拥有自己的军队，”意大利外交部长安东尼奥·塔亚尼上个月在接受意大利《新闻报》采访时表示。意大利既是欧盟的创始成员国，也是北约的创始成员国。这位官员建议，这支作战部队可以参与维和行动和预防冲突。

然而，即便欧洲战火纷飞，整个欧洲大陆都在努力加强防务合作，这项提议也并未获得多少支持。首先，欧盟27个成员国对于是否需要这样一支部队几乎没有共识。

西班牙国防部在一份声明中表示：“建立这一共同防御体系——这是发展‘欧洲军队’的必要框架——需要欧盟理事会一致通过。如果说在1992年欧盟仅有12个成员国时，实现这一要求都几乎是不可能的，那么未来欧盟拥有27个或更多成员国时，做出这样的决定就更加困难了——在这种情况下，这个想法在近期内是不现实的，或者说是负担不起的。”

此外，丹麦（也是这两个组织的成员国）认为，欧洲已经在北约拥有了一支国防力量，因此没有必要再单独组建一支欧洲专属部队。

丹麦国防部在一份声明中表示：“北约是我们集体安全的基石，国防仍然是国家主权问题——北约或欧盟没有军队，只有盟国和成员国之间密切的防务合作。丹麦不支持建立欧盟军队。”

斯洛文尼亚国防部负责战略沟通的官员阿莱什·西拉告诉《防务新闻》，这个问题也不在斯洛文尼亚的议程上。

过去，欧盟在成功实现其优先事项方面面临的一个挑战是，成员国倾向于在国家层面实施其国防计划。

欧洲防务局发布的《2022年国防协调年度审查报告》重点强调了这一发现。该报告还指出，大多数欧盟国家也是北约成员国，并将北约视为其主要的多边合作方向。

波兰认为，这两者应该被视为互补而非不相容的。

波兰国防部在一份声明中表示：“波兰不会忽视欧盟在安全和防务领域的行动——（欧盟的行动）应该与北约的努力相辅相成，为加强北约的努力和跨大西洋安全做出贡献。”

新举措，类似职位

四个成员国中的三个达成共识，认为已经建立了其他一些机制，这些机制将发挥与欧洲军队类似的作用，并提供类似的能力。

斯洛文尼亚、西班牙和波兰的各部委都提到了欧盟快速部署能力的发展，该能力旨在到 2025 年能够在非许可环境中快速部署一支最多 5000 人的模块化部队。

首次区域部署演习于10月在西班牙举行，共有9个欧洲国家派出2800名军事人员和装备参与。参演国家包括奥地利、西班牙、法国、匈牙利、爱尔兰、意大利、马耳他、葡萄牙和罗马尼亚。

正如波兰国防部所强调的那样，其他欧盟成员国也在单独采取额外的合作措施。

声明称：“我们的目标是加强欧盟国家内部的防务合作，这一点在1月30日得到了体现，当时国防部长与荷兰和德国的部长签署了一份关于军事重新部署程序的意向书。”

虽然该文件与普通军事文件有所不同，但它将有助于加快盟军部队在三个国家之间的调动。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。