Over the past several years the arc of instability is getting closer to the European continent while the United States (US) is shifting its attention more and more towards the Pacific Ocean to deal with China’s rising power. Meanwhile the demand for a strong European army starts to rise but several challenges have to be overcome.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a relative period of peace on the European continent. Conflicts were located far from Europe and as such a strong military was not needed. Since the events of the Arab Spring conflicts and wars are getting closer to the borders of the European Union (EU). The current conflict in the Ukraine, as well as the Syrian civil war, is posing security challenges for the EU that requires a stronger military stance by the EU itself.
Ever since the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) there has been a strong dependence in Europe on US armed forces to defend the European continent. This has historic reasons as the European NATO members were military too weak to face the Soviet Union alone. With the US delivering most of NATO’s military power in Europe there was little initiative in the EU to create strong armies themselves. Now that the US is focussing more and more on the Pacific Ocean, and the subsequent redeployment of troops to that area, the EU has been asked to shoulder its share of the burden to defend Europe.
The creation of a European defence is a long story that faces a lot of challenges. The biggest challenge will be to overcome the sovereignty of the EU member states. The EU started as an economic project that gradually grew into a political formation. Member states find it difficult to transfer political power to the EU level and thus diminishing their national state rights. European nations have a long history of being independent states and are thus reluctant to give up some of their independence and sovereignty. This is especially true for armed forces as these are generally perceived as the last institution to uphold and defend sovereignty.
The creation of a European defence will also lead to a new command structure that is on the EU level, thus above the level of member states. Many EU member states, especially the large once, are reluctant to transfer control over their armed forces to the EU level in fear of losing control in the deployment of their armed forces. Nevertheless there are already some experiments of integrating European armed forces between member states, albeit on a small scale. The Belgian and Dutch navies for example are working closely for several years while the Dutch are trying to integrate a mechanized brigade in a German armoured division. Recently Germany and Poland agreed to transfer operational control of a brigade stationed on their mutual border, putting Poland in control over a German brigade and vice versa. These projects are the first steps in creating a truly European army.
Aside from a new command structure there is also a need for a streamlined logistical process and common training for all military units within the European Union. This might seem like a challenge but the European Union however faces the same challenges in this field as NATO does. Indeed, the NATO framework, aimed in uniting armed forces from different countries, might be the framework the European Union has been looking for.
More constructive progress is seen in the European battle groups where EU member states donate troops in order to form a battalion sized formation, modelled on the NATO reaction forces (NRF). The EU has at all times two battle groups available under the direct control of the Council of the European Union but so far they have been rarely deployed. The battle groups are focused generally on humanitarian missions and peace keeping but they have the potential to form the building blocks for an European army.
Many do wonder if a single European army is needed. Even the United States have their doubts in the creation of such an army. The US is demanding that the EU should increase its armed forces and cooperate better but this should be done within the NATO framework. Should the EU develop a single army then it could use this army to back up its foreign policy and thus go in competition against the foreign interests of the United States. It is perceived that this could eventually lead to a split within NATO. Even if the feared split doesn’t arrive, the competition between the US and the EU could easily be exploited by third parties, like Russia seeking to undermine NATO coherence.
