Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called on EU leaders to create a common European military. Tajani argues that without a joint force, the bloc cannot have a credible foreign policy.
“If we want to be agents of peace in the world, we need a European army.” Tajani told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Sunday.
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“This is a fundamental prerequisite for an effective European foreign policy.” He went on to add: “Strong players” European nationals from the United States, Russia, China, etc. “It can only be protected by what already exists. It is called the European Union.”
Some 22 EU countries are now members of NATO, and the U.S.-led agreement has effectively determined security policy on the continent since the start of the Cold War. But several EU leaders have floated the idea in recent years of merging their militaries into a common force independent of U.S. control.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel are two of the most vocal supporters of the idea. Macron famously called NATO this way. “brain death” In 2019, he urged European leaders to pursue policies that: “Strategic autonomy” From Washington.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in 2021 that such a move would be “Connections between North America and Europe will weaken.” When talk of a European Independence Army first surfaced 20 years ago, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen was more outspoken in rejecting the idea. “It’s a threat to the very existence of NATO.”
The conflict in Ukraine has clearly put a damper on the debate about European autonomy. Mr Macron has since changed his rhetoric on NATO and now supports expanding the US-led alliance. Chancellor Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, is still “A more sovereign…European Union” But she remains silent on the idea of building something like Merkel says. “A real, true European army.”