Posted on 01/26/2002 6:59:55 PM PST by TaxPayer2000
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A top German diplomat called Thursday for the European Union to develop its own army as a logical further step toward integration after the successful launch of the new single currency, the euro.
"Does it make sense to keep the national armies?" German Ambassador to Washington Wolfgang Ischinger asked a selected audience of diplomats and foreign policy scholars at the Woodrow Wilson International center for Scholars in Washington. "Does it make sense to keep 15 navies, some of them rather small, but with lots of admirals?
"I have no problem with a European military structure," Ischinger said, going further than other high German officials addressing this political issue that has infuriated Euroskeptics who oppose a federal European state.
Noting approvingly that his government had already proposed developing a common military transport system to be used by all EU member states, the ambassador said, "I don't think there's a limit to this process."
Ischinger was state secretary of the German Foreign Ministry, the highest ranking career diplomat, before being assigned to Washington. In his unscripted remarks, he said it seemed illogical to maintain separate officer training academies in all 15 member states of the EU, and the more so as EU enlargement plans soon could increase the membership to 25 or more countries.
The concept of a fully European army, in which national uniforms and command structures would give way to a communal system, has hitherto been espoused mainly by officials of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, who see themselves as the custodians of the European ideal.
EU Commission President Romano Prodi says the creation of a single army in which British or French or German soldiers fight under an EU flag and take orders from a European commander is the "logical next step" after the euro. Prodi said the EU must build its own army or risk being "marginalized in the new world history."
By contrast, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has warned that moves toward a European army or the development of the new European Rapid Reaction Force, separate from NATO, is highly dangerous for the Atlantic Alliance.
"The real drive toward a separate European defense is the same as that towards a single European currency -- namely the Utopian venture of creating a single European super-state to rival the U.S. on the world stage," she warned the English-Speaking Union last year.
The issue is highly charged, because of the current EU attempt to build its own Rapid Reaction Force of 60,000 troops, with its own air and naval support and command and staff structure, that could operate independently of NATO when the alliance as a whole does not wish to get involved.
The nearest to a European Army is the experimental Eurocorps force founded by France and Germany. This joint Franco-German brigade, in which Spain, Belgium and Luxemburg also are participating, is directly responsible to the EU and NATO. The Eurocorps, with its headquarters in Strasbourg, has deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo and is likely to feature in the new EU force, but the national governments still have last word over deployments and operations.
The original Eurocorps ambition of bilingual French and German troops mixing down to platoon and squad level has been scaled back because of language difficulties and because the troops preferred to share barracks with fellow nationals. But the officers are bilingual and command one another's troops in training.
The idea of a European army can be traced back to Napoleon, who once said that with French officers and British troops he would be able to conquer the world
Bill
On the other hand, if the Europeans have their own military, maybe we won't have to go over there and rescue them from each other anymore. That would be a plus.
Why not? We don't want it, let them have it.
My understanding is that one of the reasons that the EU got started was the opposite--to keep Germany from going its own way and economically dominating Europe. Of course, times change--maybe what concerns you now is a possibility.
Germany is right now in deep recession with no end in sight because the euro has highlighted the fact that German labor costs are the highest in Europe.
We went through this after Kosovo. Every time the Europeans see how far their military capacities lag behind ours they call for a united EU army. One huge European airforce could provide sufficient demand for a trans European aviation industry producing ONE state of the art fighter. And one huge European army could provide sufficient demand for ONE state of the art tank. The European arms industry could support itself from internal demand, not entirely from exports and taxpayer subsidies. But the problems are perhaps insurmountable. Whose aircraft industry gets scaled back ? Does this mean there will never be Dutch or Belgian generals ?
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