Much like the minister for foreign affairs (see EUROPE 13796/4), Spain’s Secretary of State for the European Union Fernando Sampedro advocated [creating] a European army when he was in Cyprus on Tuesday, 3 February.
“It is time, in the current geopolitical context, [for] Europe [to] foster its sovereignty in the area of security and defence and advance the work on a possible common army”, he stressed upon his arrival at the informal ministerial meeting on competitiveness (see other news).
In Norway the day before, High Representative of the Union Kaja Kallas had, however, dismissed the idea. “Those who say that we need a European army, maybe those people haven’t really thought this through practically. If you are already part of NATO, then you can’t create a separate army”, she explained.
Stressing that the most important thing during a crisis is the chain of command—“who gives orders to whom”—she felt that if, for example, there were a European army and a NATO army, “the ball [would] just [fall] between the chairs.” “And [that would be] extremely, extremely dangerous”, the high representative warned. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Solenn Paulic)