Germany In Favour Of Creating European Army

Europes most controversial question is on the table. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference Saturday, the German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said Berlin supports the long term goal of creating a European army, which will bolster the EU‘s role as a global player.

“This is not intended to replace other security structures. More Europe is not a strategy directed against anyone. No one has any reason to fear Europe, but everyone should be able to depend on Europe.”

Guido Westerwelle

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has said Berlin supports the long term goal of creating a European army, which will bolster the EU’s role as a global player, the EUobserver reports.

Speaking Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering for high-level discussions on security and defence, Mr Westerwelle said the EU’s new institutional rules, the Lisbon Treaty, are “not the end but, rather, the beginning for common security and defence policy.”

“The long term goal is the establishment of a European army under full parliamentary control,” he said, noting that the German government “wants to advance along this path.”

Mr Westerwelle, who is just a few months into the job as Germany’s top diplomat as part of a ruling Christian Democrat and liberal coalition, suggested that moving further on common security and defence will be the “motor for greater European integration.”

With a nod to Nato, the military alliance which competes with the EU in terms of overlapping members and available resources, he said: “This is not intended to replace other security structures. More Europe is not a strategy directed against anyone. No one has any reason to fear Europe, but everyone should be able to depend on Europe.”

Under EU rules, member states with certain military capacities and the political will to move in this direction can club together to move forward on common defence.

In recent years, the need for an EU army has often been floated in political discussions – politicians in France, the UK and Poland have also spoken favourably of the idea.

Read the full article at EUobserver.com.

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