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June 2007

On the Way towards a European Army

SPD Members of the German 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 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, , 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

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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 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 , 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 (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 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. ratification is currently on ice, provides for By developing equal-ranking civilian and the further development of ESDP. By creat- military capabilities for international crisis ing the the EU prevention and crisis management the EU members have brought forward a key ele- is making allowances for the broader con- ment of the constitutional treaty. The new cept of security and the new types of pre- agency’s role is to improve European col- sent-day threats. laboration on equipment planning, provi- sion, research and technology, and to cre- The “European Security Strategy” (ESS), ate greater coherence. which was approved in December 2003 by the European Council in Brussels, is the The European Union already displays ele- first EU document to describe common ments of a collective security system, simi- challenges and name common interests. lar to the United Nations and NATO. The constitutional treaty’s provisions on com- Meanwhile the EU has successfully carried mon security and defence policy also in- out its first military operations. In Mace- clude an obligation to mutual assistance: donia the Concordia mission took place Focus on Germany Seite 4

“If a Member State is the victim of armed  the in Strassburg (Ger- aggression on its territory, the other many, France, Belgium, , Member States shall have towards it an Luxemburg), obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with  the European Airlift Centre in Eindho- Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. ven, developed from the European Air This shall not prejudice the specific cha- Coordination Cell which was founded racter of the security and defence policy in 2001, of certain Member States.” (Article I-41, paragraph 7)  the German-Dutch Corps based in Münster (1995), In addition to this the negotiated constitu- tional treaty contains a solidarity clause:  the Sealift Coordination Centre (2003): nine states mutually guarantee access “(1) The Union and its Member States to three transport vessels, shall act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist  the Multinational Corps Northeast in attack or the victim of a natural or man- Stettin (Germany, Denmark, Poland) made disaster. The Union shall mobilise set up at the end of 2000, all the instruments at its disposal, inclu- ding the military resources made avai-  the joint mine clearance association of lable by the Member States, to: the Baltic Naval Squadron with its joint headquarters in Estonia, (a) — prevent the terrorist threat in the terri-  the joint naval headquarters of the tory of the Member States; Benelux states in Den Helder, — protect democratic institutions and the civilian population from any terrorist at-  the Dutch example in air transport: in- tack; stead of procuring their own transport — assist a Member State in its territory, aircraft (with the resulting costs for in- at the request of its political authorities, in frastructure, maintenance, personnel the event of a terrorist attack; etc.), the Netherlands have agreed with Germany, on a cost-sharing basis, (b) assist a Member State in its territory, to use German air transport capacities, at the request of its political authorities, in the event of a natural or man-made di-  air traffic control in the Baltic states: saster.” (Article I-43) since the three Baltic republics lack the necessary aircraft, nations of the The solidarity clause was activated after the NATO alliance have been operating an terrorist attacks in Madrid in March 2004, air policing mission on a three-month although it is only politically, and not legally, rotation scheme with the necessary binding until the European Constitution ac- aircraft and ground personnel sta- tually comes into effect. tioned in Lithuania,

 mutually guaranteed and timely access Things already functioning to strategic air transport capabilities for the transfer of NATO and EU rapid re- Integration of the European armed forces action forces: 15 nations, including has long since begun. Numerous initiatives Germany, have a joint contract with point in the right direction. In recent years the supplier Ruslan SALIS Company there have been several good examples of which provides access to up to six An- closer cooperation between the EU part- tonov 124-100 heavy transport aircraft ners, also partially within NATO: for multinational NATO or EU mis- sions,  the German-French Brigade was al- ready founded in 1989,  the AWACS fleet – although this is a NATO project, it is a good example of joint alliance institutions, Focus on Germany Seite 5

The age of the national universal army is  the multinational armed forces com- drawing to a close. mands EUROFOR (European Opera- tional Rapid Force) and EUROMAR- FOR (European Maritime Force) with The next steps France, Spain, and as participants. A European army, embedded in a new European Union, cannot be a short-term The examples show what is already possi- objective. A series of measures are con- ble and functioning today. Soldiers from all ceivable in order to get started and provide of the European states are experiencing the integration process with new impulses, day-to-day multinational cooperation in their namely: headquarters and units.  the setting-up of a European Air Equipment planning and acquisition will Transport Command which replaces also have to be carried out with a greater the appropriate national commands in level of coordination between the European all of their functions, i.e. including edu- members in the future. The increasingly ex- cation and training, maintenance and pensive development of new military tech- logistics, as well as joint air transport nology has already stimulated strong squadrons (the coordination of plan- moves towards integration – almost all of ning and operations of existing air the German armed forces’ major acquisition transport capacities within the EAC plans are multinational projects. Despite framework can be seen as an interme- this, there is still much room for greater effi- diary step). ciency. Agreed European norms and larger orders can contribute towards a lowering of  at the moment there is no independent costs, as well as improving cooperation be- council of ministers for military matters tween Europe’s armed forces. The Euro- in the EU: a “genuine” council of de- pean Defence Agency EDA represents a fence ministers should be formed on step in this direction. It is designed to pre- the way to a joint European army. vent what sometimes presented a problem in past multinational projects: variations in  a European Parliament defence com- equipment increased in relation to the num- mittee should be formed. At the mo- ber of countries involved in the cooperation ment questions surrounding defence project. policy are only dealt with by a sub- committee of the European Parlia- Coordinated cooperation, beginning at the ment’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. equipment planning level, is essential if A defence committee which accompa- Europe wishes to close the gaps in its ca- nies the ESDP and the process of in- pabilities. The list of European deficits is creased integration of the European long. With the European Capability Action armed forces as an independent Plan (ECAP) of 2001 the EU member committee would signal the strength- states declared themselves in favour of util- ening of parliamentary responsibility at ising synergy effects to close military capa- the European level. bility gaps.  a European Military Academy or Uni- The Europeans will be unable to overcome versity should be created. This could their equipment deficits at a national level – also be a step towards formulating not least because of the limited budgets in common educational and training all of the states. Joint European efforts are standards for future leading personnel needed, and they offer the chance of further in the European armed forces. integration. We have had good experiences with the existing multinational cooperation  a Baltic Naval Headquarters devel- in Europe. In future we should combine not oped from the Baltic states’ successful only command structures and capabilities cooperation in the joint mine clearance but also share or join together in fulfilling association. tasks more than in the past – every army does not have to be able to fulfil everything. Focus on Germany Seite 6

 joint manoeuvres irrespective of bor- enlarged “Schengen for the Baltic Sea” ders are already part of the European the resources of the states bordering armies’ everyday activities. In order to on the Baltic Sea could be bundled, continue improving cooperation be- and the territorial waters and economic tween the various armed forces the zones in the Baltic Sea could be in- number of joint European manoeuvres creasingly monitored in joint opera- should be increased. tions.

 based on the well-practiced experi-  in the case of Air Policing, and against ence of close European cooperation in the background of the short flying civil aerospace programmes, military times between the European sover- space programmes should also be eign territories, it would be practical to started together (reconnaissance and develop a form of close cooperation or communications satellites). Combined a joint solution to the tasks. NATO’s air operations in this field would be of traffic control in the Baltic states can benefit in view of the high costs in- act as a model for other smaller states. volved. Joint air traffic control could not only be more effective, it could also help to  European coordination of the available lower the costs. capabilities. The smaller EU states in particular are unable to provide the whole capability spectrum. They could Our proposed direction – and use their limited resources to special- what has to be discussed be- ise in niche capabilities. forehand

 existing resources and capabilities Many questions still have to be answered within the member states can be com- on the road to joint armed forces. There are bined with the aim of setting up a still many structural differences within communications base / communica- Europe, for instance in the formation of the tions network to support ESDP. military forces, parliamentary participation

or principles of leadership of the armies.  the European Gendarmerie Force

(EGF), which was called into being by If we want to reach our desired goal, we France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain should begin by discussing it and talking it and Portugal (headquarters: Vicenza, over with our partners in Europe. A Euro- operational since the beginning of pean White Paper would be an appropriate 2006), is a reaction to experiences form to promote and structure this process during previous EU missions. It should of clarification and understanding. be expanded because, as a police

force with military status, it can be the For the preparation of a European white appropriate answer in conflict situa- paper on security and defence policy we tions where the military is no longer would like to discuss the following aspects required, but where conditions are not with our European partners: yet stable enough for a standard police

mission. In the case of Germany,  the various national parliamentary de- which cannot participate because of its cision-making processes regarding strict division between the military and deployments make it necessary to the police, we should seek a solution seek a common denominator. that enables us to contribute to the

EGF.  the creation of a common military or-

der and/or a common military law is  now that Poland and the Baltic states necessary. have joined the Schengen Agreement,

there is an urgent need for joint activity  we have to develop a standardised in carrying out the necessary control of model of leadership and education. the external maritime borders, since

these states’ national resources will be  it is necessary to determine the deci- insufficient for this purpose. In an sion-making procedures for declara- Focus on Germany Seite 7

tions of war and peace (jus belli et of a long process which, in the case of the pacis). The powers and responsibilities euro for instance, lasted thirty years. of the Commission (executive), the Parliament (legislature) and the Euro- Greater integration of the national armed pean Council must be clarified. forces in multinational structures is, for in- stance in Germany’s case, not a new ex-  the handing-over of sovereignty by the perience: during the Cold War era the level EU states and the transfer of powers of integration was greater than it is today – to a democratically legitimated Euro- it was essential because of the brief early pean level must be discussed. Armed warning intervals. Germany’s armed forces forces are a powerful expression of were an integral part of NATO from the very state sovereignty. The EU is not a beginning and they were completely aligned state. It is something entirely new, and to the NATO structures. at the present time it is a kind of con- federation of states with its own status The handing-over of sovereignty in a key in international law. How will, and how area of state politics, such as that of na- must, the EU be constituted to enable tional defence, may well come up against it to have joint armed forces? The na- many reservations, but there are prece- tional conditions for the handing-over dents: with the introduction of a common of sovereignty must also be regulated. currency the participating states gave up For instance, in the case of Germany, considerable decision-making powers in the are the regulations in the Basic Law fields of economic and monetary policy – in (Article 24) sufficient to this purpose? the interest of strengthening Europe.

 questions of finance have to be clari- We can learn from the introduction of the fied. There has to be a fair distribution euro in another respect, too: not all coun- of costs between the EU and the tries joined in the euro at the start – be it member states, and among the mem- because the preconditions were not satis- ber states. fied, or because there were political reser- vations. In a similar way, the joint army pro-  in analogy to the national defence min- ject does not have to be a “Europe of the isters, a defence commissioner could 27” project from the very start. head the military structures at Euro- pean level. It would be possible to pick up a suggestion from the Joint Declaration of Germany,  the role of the nuclear armed forces of France, Luxemburg and Belgium of April France and Great Britain in an inte- 29th 2003 on the creation of a “European grated European army should be dis- Security and Defence Union” (ESDU). Ac- cussed. cording to the declaration the task of the fu- ture ESDU should be “to bring together those member States that are ready to go Our objective: European armed faster and further in strengthening their de- forces fence cooperation. (…) ESDU would be open to all the current and future member Germany’s Council Presidency offers a States that are ready to join. We wish this good opportunity to take the initiative to- concrete cooperation to be integrated into wards creating joint European armed the constitutional Treaty of the European forces. This is an ambitious objective and Union so that, in the end, all current and fu- its realisation still seems to lie in the distant ture member States could be a part of it.” future. There could well be parallel struc- tures during a transition period, but the ob- A European army would alter the network of jective is an integrated European army. relationships between the European Union, If we don’t start now, we will never reach the member states and NATO. For us our goal. Other, similarly ambitious Euro- Europeans NATO will remain the strategic pean projects, ranging from a common link between the EU and the United States market to a common currency, did not hap- of America. But like the United States, pen overnight either. They stood at the end Europe must also be in the position to act independently if necessary. The United Focus on Germany Seite 8

States and the EU under the umbrella of to a European army. For decades Germany NATO – in the best case these are two has lived in peace with its neighbours, highly efficient partners. The way in which many are our fellow members in NATO and this partnership can create stability and new the EU. We are ready to enter into a proc- security was demonstrated in the Balkans. ess at the end of which we integrate our na- As Social Democrats in Europe we want to tional armies into a supra-national army, a take the initiative of embarking on the road European army.

The opinions presented in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the FES London.