EU 'army' slowly builds; constitution, too
The EU now has two 1,500-troop battle groups, known as Rapid Reaction Forces, ready for deployment. You can use the slick acronymn EURRF for short. While this is an incremental step toward what could eventually be a real EU military, the papers always neglect to mention that the initial highly-reported goal back in 1999 was to have a 60,000-troop EURRF by this time.
So they succeeded with 5 percent of that.
Anyway, it's still worth following. Dramatic plot lines include (1) What does this say about NATO?, (2) What does this say about the US-EU relationship in general, (3) What does this say about state sovereignty in Europe?, among others.
You say you want a constitution
Meanwhile, both France and the Netherlands - the states that vetoed the EU constitution in 2005 - seem more likely to support a constitution now. The year being mentioned is 2009.
Slow but steady, the EU is.
So they succeeded with 5 percent of that.
Anyway, it's still worth following. Dramatic plot lines include (1) What does this say about NATO?, (2) What does this say about the US-EU relationship in general, (3) What does this say about state sovereignty in Europe?, among others.
You say you want a constitution
Meanwhile, both France and the Netherlands - the states that vetoed the EU constitution in 2005 - seem more likely to support a constitution now. The year being mentioned is 2009.
Slow but steady, the EU is.
posted by bp at
10:01 AM
2 Comments:
From memory the EURRF is not a standing army and the soldiers remain enmeshed in their national armies. Though they have been deployed previously (I think it was Macedonia the first time?) I don't think they will be a NATO replacement anytime soon. To me they appear a peacekeeping force on-demand and not an aggressive force projecting power.
That said, I think it does say something about how the EU is working together: not quickly but eventually getting it together. You are right to an eye on the development of the EURRF as it seems to be a (small) success of the otherwise problematic CFSP.
By
Anonymous, at 10:54 AM
Your points are good ones, as too often people portray the rapid reaction forces as a "EuroArmy" or "the new NATO." They are not that.
But the Petersburg tasks do include peace-making as well as peacekeeping, so that could eventually get them into some hot scenarios. But aggressive, probably not. And the states involved (for the troops are, as you say, simply groupings of national military units) do not have the capabilities to come even close to a NATO or US force.
Member states still have a veto, of course, over the use of their troops, but maybe down the road things will become integrated. I tend to be skeptical, but small steps of integration over long periods of time have gotten the EU where it is today.
(But I also like to point out that the EU could also reverse course or disintegate in some manner, something that many Europeanists do not consider.)
thanks for the comments
By
bp, at 5:37 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home