London Office The Chandlery Office 609 Focus on Germany 50 Westminster Bridge Road GB London SE1 7QY Tel 00 44 20 77 21 87 45 Fax 00 44 20 77 21 87 46 www.feslondon.org.uk June 2007 On the Way towards a European Army SPD Members of the German Bundestag have laid out a plan for the further development of the military dimension of European Foreign and Security Policy. It envisions a series of concrete steps for the deepening of military cooperation in Europe. In the long run, these steps could open up the way to the creation of a European army. The European Union has 27 member The European security strategy, passed at states, 490 million citizens and accounts for the Brussels summit of December 2003, a quarter of the world’s gross national forms a good mutual basis for new im- product, making it far more than a confed- pulses in the area of security and defence eration of states: the EU is a global player. policy. The European Union’s political and eco- nomic significance entails the responsibility Europe’s responsibility and of making an appropriate contribution to- possibilities wards the resolution of conflicts, including those located beyond its own continent. The European Union is characterised by a The European Union can, and must, con- great diversity of historically rooted foreign tribute towards building a freer and safer policy and security traditions. The defence world. policies of the individual member states display substantial differences, in areas A common foreign, security and defence such as strategic planning, equipment, policy is necessary in order to give Europe structure of the forces or in leadership style. a voice. Europe must act as a single entity if it wishes to be recognized alongside the But there are more factors uniting than di- United States and the growing powers of viding us. Europe shares a common set of China and India. European values. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, for which the ratifi- __________________________________ cation process should be continued, formu- lates the fundamental convictions guiding The paper has been written by members of the the states of Europe: SPD parliamentarian party’s working groups on Europe and defence questions in the Bundestag: Hans-Peter Bartels, Jörn Thießen, “The Union is founded on the values of Ursula Mogg, Steffen Reiche, Andreas Weigel, respect for human dignity, freedom, de- Michael Roth, Rainer Arnold, Gerd Höfer, Petra mocracy, equality, the rule of law and re- Heß spect for human rights, including the Focus on Germany Seite 2 rights of persons belonging to minorities. These dangers do not threaten specific in- These values are common to the Mem- dividual countries in Europe – they threaten ber States in a society in which pluralism, us all. For this reason we have to find non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, so- common solutions to these challenges. lidarity and equality between women and men prevail.” (Article1-2) National armies within an increasingly strong, supranational EU will gradually de- “In its relations with the wider world, the velop into relics of the last century. In com- Union shall uphold and promote its val- parison with the United States our 27 ar- ues and interests. It shall contribute to mies (with a total of around two million sol- peace, security, the sustainable deve- diers) are expensive. The European Union lopment of the Earth, solidarity and mu- spends around 160 billion euros each year tual respect among peoples, free and fair in this area, and we have to employ these trade, eradication of poverty and the pro- resources more efficiently. The states of tection of human rights, in particular the Europe are also united in this respect: rights of the child, as well as to the strict whilst having to adapt our forces to the new observance and the development of in- challenges, our financial leeway is limited. ternational law, including respect for the For this reason a better bundling of re- principles of the United Nations Charter.” sources and capabilities is definitely an ur- (Article 1-3, paragraph 4) gent requirement. Europe stands for a security policy which is We should build on the successes of the based on values, is not restricted to the European unification process, and as an military, acts multilaterally and is dedicated expression of our common security inter- to upholding and further developing interna- ests we should have the courage to initiate tional law. a development at the end of which we have a European army. The security environment in which the members of the European Union wish to at- tain common goals has changed radically Where we stand today since the end of the Cold War. The idea is not as new as it might at first There are no longer any specific security appear. In 1954, nine years after the end of problems or threats for Germany or France, World War II, an attempt was made to form Denmark or Poland. Germany, at the centre a European defence union. It was probably of Europe, is no longer surrounded by ene- too early. mies, but by NATO partners and EU mem- bers. The classic scenario of national de- So now, half a century later, when we em- fence, a major attack on Europe with ar- bark on a process towards developing a mies of tanks and fleets of bombers, has joint European army, we are not starting become improbable. from scratch. Especially in the fifteen years following the end of the division of Europe, In Europe today we find ourselves con- in other words since 1990, the EU has fronted with new dangers which do not stop made great progress in closer cooperation at national borders. These new strategic on security and defence policy. Step by threats are “international terrorism”, or more step, we have steadily advanced, even if precisely fundamental Islamist terror di- from time to time our achievements are ob- rected against “the west” on principle, the scured by talk of crises and widespread spread of weapons of mass destruction and Euro-scepticism. missile technology, the instability generated by regional conflicts and so-called failed The hesitant beginnings of European Politi- states, and the dangers resulting from or- cal Co-operation (EPC) in the 70s devel- ganised crime – because this too has an oped into increasingly intense coordination “external dimension”: trafficking in weap- in foreign policy and security questions ons, drugs and human beings, links with in- within the framework of Common Foreign ternational terrorism. and Security Policy (CFSP), which was in- troduced with the Maastricht Treaty (1993) and further developed with the Amsterdam Focus on Germany Seite 3 Treaty. At the turn of the century the Euro- from March to December 2003 under EU pean Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) leadership after taking over responsibility extended the CFSP. The “European Coun- from NATO. This mission made an impor- cil declaration on strengthening the com- tant contribution towards peacemaking in mon European policy on security and de- the country. The first autonomous EU op- fence” in Cologne of June 1999, which eration was the Artemis mission from June came about under German council presi- to September 2003 which aimed at stabilis- dency, marked the development of ESDP ing unrest in the Congolese province of as an integral part of CFSP. Bunia. After the operation’s successful completion responsibility was handed over At its meeting in Helsinki in December 1999 to the United Nation’s MONUC mission. In the European Council agreed on the “Euro- 1999 in Bosnia-Herzegovina the EU took pean Headline Goal”. This goal enables the charge of the Althea mission, replacing the Union to mobilise up to 60,000 soldiers NATO’S SFOR mandate. In autumn 2006 within 60 days to meet the requirements of the EU’s EUFOR RD CONGO mission suc- all of the “Petersburg tasks” (humanitarian cessfully backed up the first free elections and rescue operations, peace-keeping mis- to be held in Congo for over 40 years. In sions, military action in crisis management addition to this there have been several ci- including peacemaking measures). How- vilian operations, such as the EU police ever, these task forces remain a national mission Proxima (civilian back-up operation responsibility; their provision and deploy- in Macedonia) or the EU police mission ment are based on a sovereign decision of EUPOL Kinshasa designed to support the the member states. redevelopment of the police force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the following years new committees were created to strengthen the common policy The agreed development of combined (including the Political and Security Com- European Battle Groups for crisis interven- mittee [PSC], the EU Military Committee), tion purposes marks an important step to- and arrangements for cooperation with wards integrating national military forces NATO were settled in the “Berlin Plus into future European security structures. Agreement” of 2003. Germany is actively involved in putting the concept into practice. The system’s practi- The Feira European Council of June 2000 cability will be continually monitored. Initial confirmed that ESDP could only be suc- experiences with the envisaged system of cessful by not restricting itself to the military guaranteed provision of specific units for sphere. Instead, it should also include civil- prescribed periods have to be carefully ana- ian components. The mixture of civilian and lysed in order to develop it, if and when military resources, together with the convic- necessary. tion that contemporary threats are not ex- clusively of a military nature and can thus The Treaty establishing a Constitution for only be met by a combination of instru- Europe, signed in October 2004 and whose ments, is a trademark of European politics.