The military cooperation between European Union (EU) member states is developing more and more rapidly. Earlier on Sweden managed to create military treaties with Finland and Denmark. The former to form a joint naval task force with Finland, in the later to cooperate at sea and in the air.
The military cooperation between EU member states in the Baltic Region has taken a new step with Germany and Poland exchanging a battalion each. A German battalion will be put under Polish command while a Polish battalion will fall under German command at the same time.
This move is aimed to develop better ties between Germany and Poland, to learn and understand each other military procedures and tactics as well developing a greater cross-border cooperation in the future.
It is unknown what battalions will be selected but it will most likely be military units stationed near the German-Polish border. The transfer of the authority will happen in mid-2016.
Military cooperation between EU member states was rare until recently. Even though there were exchange programs and the EU Battle Groups there are very few examples of a cooperation this close. The reason for this can easily be seen on the eastern border of the EU.
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| Coat of Arms of the Eurocorps, the only militar yorganisation inside the EU that is under direct control of the EU parlement |
Several eastern EU member states feel themselves threatened with a more aggressively acting Russia as a neighbour that is bolstering its military forces, as well as the conduct of the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Thus the EU member states are looking for ways to improve their military strength in order to deter Russia. One of these ways is military cooperation.
The need to work together and try to integrate each other’s armies is a logic evolution. One unified EU army is still decades away in the future and each member states lack the military power to deter Russia alone. Maintaining armed forces and how to deploy them still remains a sovereign right of the EU member states and there is little that the EU parliament can do to influence this. Projects like the joint Swedish-Finnish naval task force as well as the transfer of authority in a German and Polish battalion are just two examples of members states trying to bypass to a certain degree the sovereign rights.
The Baltic States were the first to do it with a joint political structure and their defence ministers meeting every month to discuss their military programs. Recently Sweden started to unite the Nordic countries in order to create some form of military cooperation that is already been called in some press as an anti-Russia coalition. Now Germany and Poland are working together in order to understand each other’s military capabilities.
These are just small steps but they help to pave the way to create a EU army. The German-Polish cooperation is a big step however with Germany in command of a Polish battalion and vice versa. The results of this cooperation will give the EU valuable lessons learned and might serve as a leading example on the unification of EU armed forces.
Where will things evolve from here is hard to tell. Sovereign rights inside the EU are a heavily loaded topic on the political level and the transfer of military power from one nation to another is still difficult but will be necessary for the formation of an EU army. An aggressive Russia as well as the threat of an invasion in the Baltic States do serve to create a sense of urgency to get things going. Russia thus act as a catalyst, advancing the military cooperation between Baltic Region states.
A next step in the progress would be the full integration of the Baltic States military cooperation with the Swedish led anti-Russia coalition as well as advanced cooperation with Poland and Germany in order to create a military force that is large enough to detter Russia.
