Keyword: eumilitary
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The French president projected a vision of a Europe with new military power at the Munich Security Conference. As the only nuclear power in the EU, he also foresaw greater European sovereignty.“We cannot always go through the United States; no, we have to think in a European way as well,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on stage at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Saturday as he continued a theme of his presidency: projecting bold European sovereignty onto the international stage. He was referring specifically to Europe’s nuclear assets, pointing out a key difference to the Cold War era when...
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Germany, a country of 82 million, welcomed from 800,000 to over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015. Mrs Merkel, who last month announced she was controversially stepping down as leader of her party but not as Chancellor of Germany despite previously saying the two roles go hand in glove, said ceding power to a superstate is a better form of patriotism. She told the event, titled ‘Parliamentarianism Between Globalisation and National Sovereignty’: “In this day nation states must today – should today, I say – be ready to give up sovereignty. “But of course in an orderly procedure.”...
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France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called for Europe to become an “empire” to compete with the United States after the country’s President Emmanuel Macron called for an EU army to defend against the NATO ally.
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The percentage of GDP spent by Norway on defense has decreased, despite NATO obligations for member countries to increase spending in the area to two percent by 2024. The reduction in spending was reported by newspaper VG on Thursday. Defense minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said in a written response to a parliamentary question that government spending on defense would reach 1.56 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year. It will then fall further to 1.5 percent in 2020 and remain at that level until 2024, according to the report. […] According to NATO’s own figures, Norway spent 1.59 percent of...
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BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is considering joining French President Emmanuel Macron at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week in what could turn into an epic clash of competing world views with U.S. President Donald Trump. Merkel, who has been struggling to put together a government since a German election in September, had been expected to skip the annual gathering of leaders, CEOs, bankers and celebrities in the Swiss Alps for a third straight year. But after clinching a preliminary coalition agreement with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) on Friday, German officials said Merkel could travel...
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The Irish government has been accused of selling out Irish neutrality. It comes as the European Council has adopted the decision to establish a European Union defense pact, known as PESCO. Portugal and Ireland are the latest countries to join the pact. However, Sinn Féin Member of the European Parliament, Matt Carthy, said there has been “zero public debate” on the issue. “Among the most ludicrous argument proponents asserted was that we needed to sell off Irish neutrality in order to show support for the EU and its values,” Carthy said. “Since when did increasing national defense budgets, creating new...
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European Union member states on Monday moved ever closer toward establishing a defense union, after the European Council adopted the creation of a new European defense and security cooperation network known as PESCO. The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), which was first set out in the Lisbon Treaty, will allow member states to jointly develop military capabilities, invest in shared projects and enhance their respective armed forces. […] On December 7, Portugal and Ireland announced their decision to join, taking the total number of contributing members up to 25. The countries that have chosen not to take part are Malta, Denmark...
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Germany’s foreign minister on Tuesday urged Europe to define and defend its own interests, warning that Washington’s retreat from the world stage may continue even after Donald Trump’s presidency. “The current withdrawal of the US under Donald Trump from its role as the reliable guarantor of western multilateralism is accelerating a change in the world order and has direct consequences on the perception of German and European interests,” Sigmar Gabriel said. He said that the current US administration had taken an “extraordinary distance” from its traditionally close relationship with Europe, which it now increasingly viewed as a “competitor or economic...
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BERLIN (AP) — All of Germany's six submarines are out of action, and the country's defense minister isn't happy about it. The Kieler Nachrichten newspaper reports that four U-boats are being serviced in boatyards while two others are waiting for a berth. Asked how Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen views the temporary loss of the underwater fleet, her spokesman said Friday that "this is obviously not a good situation." Jens Flosdorff told reporters in Berlin that "we would hope the mission readiness was higher, but sometimes with technology the devil is in the detail."
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The European Union needs a military headquarters to work towards a common military force, the Commission president has told MEPs in Strasbourg. Jean-Claude Juncker said the lack of a "permanent structure" resulted in money being wasted on missions. Part of his annual state of the union address was devoted to the UK's unexpected vote to leave the EU. He insisted that the bloc was not at risk but called for Brexit negotiations to take place as quickly as possible. Modelled on the state of the union address by the US president, the Commission president's annual speech was introduced in 2010...
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The EU would have “the second most powerful military” in the world if its members pooled its resources, insisted the co-director of the Institute of Studies on Conflict and Humanitarian Action in an interview with EurActiv Spain. “If we added the capabilities we have in the EU together, we would automatically become the second most powerful military force on Earth and the reason we aren’t is because there is no political will. This is because each national government would rather be the head of a mouse rather than the tail of a lion,” said Jesús Núñez, a conflict analyst. …
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The German and Dutch armies and navies are poised to “merge”, creating the nucleus of the European Union’s longed for pan-EU military force. Pointing to German ministerial statements spelling out the creation of an EU Army as the ultimate goal, critics say Britain’s military will not be able to avoid being sucked in if the country remains within the Union. The German government has revealed that Dutch and German land armies and navies are set to move towards “closer integration”, with two Dutch units already coming under German command. Last month the Dutch 43rd Mechanised Brigade was subsumed into the...
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BRUSSELS has been urged to deploy its own armed forces within the EU for the first ever time in a move which would sound the death knell for European democracy. European leaders are being asked to dispatch troops to Greece - the cradle of democracy - to combat the spiralling migrant crisis. If the plan is put into action it would be the first ever time that the EU has deployed its own forces, which typically carry out peace missions abroad, within the 28-nation bloc. But the move could be fiercely opposed by Greece, which would see it as the...
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BERLIN — A European Union military force with power to intervene in member states. A new “Marshall Plan” to radically redesign whole regions of the world and impose regional government. A United Nations empowered to manage it all. Christendom under siege. And the end of nationhood as it is understood today. That is where the “refugee crisis” is heading, as the engineered disaster wreaks havoc across Europe and beyond. Despite the appearance of chaos, though, it is all by design, with a series of radical goals in mind.While the establishment’s demands on Europe to accept millions of Middle Eastern refugees...
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The fight against ISIS will not be won with military action but by bringing an end to the civil war in Syria around the negotiating table, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday. "We stand before the dilemma that the battle against ISIS must be continued, but everyone also knows that in the end the battle against terrorism can't be won militarily," Steinmeier told journalists as he arrived at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "I personally remain convinced that... we will only move forward in the Middle East if, above all, we work energetically on those questions which...
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Germany’s defense minister Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that her government planned to make the military one of the most sought after employers in the country. Von der Leyen was presenting a proposal for a more attractive Bundeswehr at the German parliament, the Bundestag. “This isn’t a sprint; rather, we have a marathon ahead of us,” the minister said. Von der Leyen, who belongs to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), proposed more part-time work, better promotion opportunities and legally-stipulated working hours—a first in the German military. …
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The European Union may acquire two Russian warships currently under construction in France, analysts say. The possibility comes as the United States and Western Europe tighten economic sanctions against Russia, and Monday's denial of a German defense contractor's delivery of military components to Russia by the German government. ... The German Navy proposed the EU purchase the ships,
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The European Commission on Tuesday (24 June) laid out plans on how to boost the EU’s military and defense industries. It wants to create a single market on defense, make it more profitable, and intensify and merge research with the civil sector. […] The EU’s €80 billion Horizon 2020 research program would be used to help fund dual-technology projects. It also wants to develop a new program to explore the potential benefits of EU-funded research projects. Among the ideas is to create drones capable of carrying out both civil and military operations. …
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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a forceful case on Friday for European members of NATO to increase their military spending, calling Russia’s intervention in Ukraine a “clarifying moment” for the alliance. “In recent years, one of the biggest obstacles to alliance investment has been a sense that the end of the Cold War ushered in an end of history, an end to insecurity, at least in Europe, and the end of aggression by nation-states,” Mr. Hagel said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “But Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth.” -snip- Mr. Hagel’s remarks added to calls...
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Military chiefs have said the Ukraine crisis is a “wake-up call” for EU countries’ defense spending, as the US backed Ukraine’s use of force in eastern regions. Speaking to press after a regular meeting of EU defense ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday (15 April), the deputy chief of the EU’s external action service, Maciej Popowski, said: “We’ve had 70 years of peace now [in Europe], but we see that power politics is back with a vengeance, so it’s a wake-up call and now we need to get serious about defense.” He noted that “this was the feeling around the table”...
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