Lauritz Miarka - Comenius Project

Lauritz Miarka - Comenius Project 26th of Jannuary, 2010

After World War II the European Union was etablished by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany in 1952 in order to prevent new military conflicts. More and more countries entered the confederation, because of the peaceful cooperation in various aspects. At this time there weren't any military pacts and the members of the european union only intented to improve their economical, immigration and evironmental policy by the use of close collaboration. In 1999 the EU decided to form a deployment force called the "European Union Battlegroup", in order to deal with peacekeeping tasks and combat crisis management. At the moment the battlegroup consists of fifteen groups with at least 1500 combat soldiers each. Concerning the present the Contract of Lissabon, which was announced in summer 2007, intents worldwide deployment of the European Battlegroups, not only with peacefully aims, but also to "defend" the interest of the European Union.

"Killing is not considered as a infrigement of the right (of life), if it is caused by an attack, which is necessary to fight riot and civil commotion"

This quote from the Charta of the fundamental right of the European Union allows the deployment of military forces even in the inland to fight a riot. The Contract of Lissabon also obliges the members of the EU to invest more money in weapons. Furthermore the they have to give military support to other members, when they are under attack. After the contract was released all members of the European Union ratified it except Irland, which led Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of the european council, to threathen Irland by the debarment from the EU. Now the question is, are all those actions really just for peacekeeping or is this the beginning of the growing desire fore military power ? Is it necessary that solidarity to other members could be a cause for beginning a war, without beeing personal affected ? Should the European Union take the control about the defence policy of each member ?