Long viewed as unrealistic, ideas like setting up a permanent headquarters for the supervision of all the European Union’s military operations or giving the EU its own military capabilities are now seen as doable in the near future by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, as he explained on Wednesday 14 September in his state of the Union address.
At the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Juncker identified lack of cooperation among the member states as the main challenge to be addressed over the next twelve months. He wants to "re-solder" the Union, which will require new defence initiatives so that it can assert itself more in a world where "soft power" is not enough.
The first measure Juncker proposed was for the EU to have a single headquarters for civilian and military operations and missions in order to be able to act efficiently. France and Germany also desire this (see EUROPE 11623), as does Poland. The idea is now doable because the biggest opponent to it, the United Kingdom, is now leaving the EU.
Juncker talked about two other taboo issues, common military resources that in some cases would belong to the EU, and the pooling by the member states of their defence capabilities in the form of permanent structured cooperation, as foreseen by the Lisbon Treaty but never put into practice. A European Defence Fund to stimulate research and innovation actively will be mooted before the end of the year.
"At last!" was how Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) reacted. Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) also expressed his support. The ECR and EFDD groups slammed the idea of what they describe as "military integration" in the EU that nobody desires and that duplicates the work of NATO. ( Original version in French by Jan Kordys)