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Zelenskyy: ‘The time has come’ for a European army (www.politico.eu)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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MUNICH — European leaders should start to create a European army in response to Russia's military build-up, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.

"I really believe that the time has come that the armed forces of Europe must be created," Zelenskyy said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. "Let's be honest, now we can't rule out that America might say no to Europe on issues that might threaten it."

As the third anniversary of Russia's all-out invasion nears on Feb. 24, Zelenskyy said Europe needed to coalesce behind a single foreign and defense policy that would show America that the bloc is serious about its own security.

Despite steep losses, Russian President Vladimir Putin is adding 150,000 troops to his armed forces, larger than most European armies, Zelenskyy said, and is opening army recruitment offices each week. "Oil prices are still high enough for him to ignore the world," he said.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Honestly small steps to start:

The EU needs a strong military command structure. The current EU military institutions should be expanded to something similar to serve as a top level command structure to coordinate the member countries armed forces in case of an attack or for other types of deployment. NATO already has similar structures, those should be replicated and improved giving the EU power in them.
A common foreign policy organization for basic coordination of foreign policy. Preferably with qualified majority votes in the council for some at least limited votes.
Common procurement agency similar to ESA in structure. The agency coordinates development of defense products by setting specifications and the like. It then acts as a common procurement structure for members. A certain amount of the money spend on the weapon system say 80% has to go back to the country buying them in the contracts. However the agency makes the call on what it buys from each member. It also acts as a place to permit weapon exports of weapons developed using the agency. Those have to be in line with EU foreign policy, as in certain weapons will not be sold to hostile or unreliable countries.

That would be a useful start, but probably more importantly qualified majorities for foreign policy and military matters within the EU.

EDIT: Also EU wide units for logistics, air defense, radars and the like which are expensive and easier to do politically. So an EU air lift for example.