Conference on the Future of Europe: recommendation 20

The European citizens expect concrete resultats from the Conference on the Future of Europe. Foto: Philippe STIRNWEISS / © European Union 2022 / Source EP

“We recommend that future ‘joint EU armed forces’ should be used primarily for defense purposes. Aggressive military action of any kind is excluded. Within Europe, this would offer the means to provide assistance in the event of a crisis, especially in the event of a natural disaster. Outside Europe, it would provide the means to be deployed in territories experiencing exceptional circumstances, exclusively under a legal mandate from the United Nations Security Council, and thus in accordance with international law.”

(Elsa Woeffler) – It is a request that is not insignificant, given the difficult context that Ukraine is going through. Indeed, at the gates of Europe, a conflict is taking place that raises fears of a return to war on the old continent. However, the demand for a common armed force is more subtle. Thus, the common armed forces will only be there in case of defense, and not of attack. A nuance, which in the end is not a nuance, and still respects the peace values of the European Union. Also, the citizens’ panel that worked on the recommendation, stipulates that the joint armed forces will be a means of providing valuable assistance to countries in need of help, in exceptional circumstances and within a strict legal framework. A glaring lack of autonomy for the European Union, whose debate on the establishment of a common armed force is still making waves.

However, this idea is not new. Recently, the events in Afghanistan have brought home to the European Union the chilling reality that it has no common force capable of taking decisions in cohesion and cannot intervene effectively. France had proposed an armed force of 5,000 men in June 2021. Also, the Eurocorps is one of the initiatives of Franco-German common approaches to the matter. Based in Strasbourg, this armed body gathers 5 European countries: Luxembourg, France, Germany, Spain and Belgium.

However, despite the initiatives made by the European Union to integrate common armed forces, doubts remain as to the creation of a real common army, in view of the different initiatives made and which do not work. In fact, these common armed forces do work, as expressed by Jean-Pierre Maulny, a French geo-politologist, in an interview with TV5monde. According to him, the difficulties of functioning are due to a complex technical aspect, but also undermined by contradictions due to a system designed that is too rigid.

The idea of a common armed force, utopia or dystopia? For several years, this project has been under constant discussion within the European institutions, with a common and highly European desire, but in reality, bureaucracy complicates everything.