Military of the European Union

The European Union does not consider itself a state, but there are a number of multi-national military and peacekeeping forces which are ultimately under the command of the EU. An early attempt (1952) to form a European Defence Community failed, but since then many politicians, including Guy Verhofstadt and Nicolas Sarkozy, promised to create a European military. As many of the 27 EU member states are also members of NATO, some EU states cooperate on defense policy (collective security) albeit primarily through NATO rather than through the EU or aligned group (such as the Western European Union). However, the memberships of the EU, WEU, and NATO are distinct, and some EU member states are constitutionally committed to remain neutral on defence issues. Several of the new EU member states were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact.

The EU currently has a limited mandate over defence issues, with a role to explore the issue of European defence agreed to in the Amsterdam Treaty, as well as oversight of the Helsinki Headline Goal Force Catalogue (the 'European Rapid Reaction Force') processes. However, some EU states may and do make multilateral agreements about defence issues outside of the EU structures.

Co-operation

The EU primarily acts through its Common Foreign and Security Policy, though Denmark has an opt-out from this and some states are limited by neutrality issues. As a result forces under EU command have been for peacekeeping, in which European states have a great deal of experience.

See also the European Security and Defence Policy.

If all the member states' annual spending was taken as a bloc the figure would amount to over $292.7 billion, second only to the US military's $518 billion.^[1] However the cumulative effect is much less than it seems due to duplication of capacities in individual militaries. There have been efforts to overcome this with joint projects such as the Eurofighter and through joint procurement of equipment.

For example:

1) There are several European tank versions (e.g. Leclerc, ERC-90, AMX-30, Challenger-2, Leopard-2, Ariete-C1, PT-91, T-72CZ), but the US military uses only one tank version.

2) There are several European IFV versions (e.g. FV530, AMX-10P, Jaguar-2, Puma), but the US military uses only one IFV version.

Recent developments

The new Treaty of Lisbon will merge a number of elements of the Western European Union (WEU) into the European Union, but not completely disestablish the WEU. It also says that:

'The common security and defence policy shall include the progressive framing of a common defence policy. This will lead to a common defence, when the European Council, acting unanimously, so decides'. (TEU, Article 27) ^[2]

British ministers initially objected to this clause. They wrote 'We believe that the European Council will not make that decision anytime soon. It is therefore inappropriate for the Treaty to pre-judge the decision of the European Council.' However, British ministers later gave way.

On 23 March, 2007, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country held the EU presidency at that time, gave an interview in celebration of the EU's fiftieth birthday, in which she expressed the desire for a unified EU army.^[3]

On 14 July 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called on the EU to create a unified military; soldiers from all 27 EU countries marched through the Champs-Elysees as part of that year's Bastille Day celebrations on the invitation of Sarkozy.^[4]

Deployment

In 2004 EU countries took over leadership of the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina from NATO through the European Union Force (EUFOR). The mission was given the branding of an EU initiative as the EU sponsored the force to further the force's image of legitimacy. There have been other deployments such as in Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recently the European High Representative for Foreign Policy Javier Solana has indicated the EU could send troops to Georgia, perhaps alongside Russian forces.^[5]

See pages of individual forces below for details or Overseas interventions of the European Union.

Military forces and groups

EUFOR Althea (peacekeeping force composed of 7,000 troops stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina)
European Union Force - the title used for EU peacekeeping deployments, which have included Bosnia/Hercegovina in 2002-, Chad/CAR, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Eurocorps (independent military force composed of 60,000 troops that can be deployed for various missions)
Eurofor (rapid reaction force under command of the Western European Union)
European Gendarmerie Force (crisis intervention force composed of 900 personnel, with 2,300 additional personnel that can be deployed as reinforcements)
Helsinki Headline Goal (listing of rapid reaction forces composed of 60,000 troops managed by the European Union, but under control of the countries who deliver troops for it)
European Union Battlegroups (closest thing to an EU military, composed of 15 battlegroups, each one numbering 1,500 troops)
European Union Military Staff (supervises military operations carried out by the EU; its chief is General Henri Bentegeat, a former chief of the French Defence Staff)
Euromarfor

Actors, agencies and policies

Defence Budgets of Member States

Rank		Defence Budget (USD)
Total	EU	292,700,000,000
1	UK	68,136,000,000
2	France	65,370,000,000
3	Germany	52,100,000,000
4	Italy	32,093,537,000
5	Spain	15,792,207,000
6	Netherlands	10,369,920,000
7	Poland	9,650,500,000
8	Greece	7,648,561,000
9	Sweden	6,309,137,714
10	Belgium	3,999,000,000
11	Portugal	3,497,800,000
12	Denmark	3,271,600,000
13	Romania	2,900,000,000
14	Finland	2,800,000,000
15	Austria	2,334,900,000
16	Czech Republic	2,170,000,000
17	Slovakia	1,408,000,000
18	Ireland	1,300,000,000
19	Hungary	1,080,000,000
20	Bulgaria	730,000,000
21	Cyprus	384,000,000
22	Slovenia	370,000,000
23	Luxembourg	231,600,000
24	Lithuania	230,800,000
25	Estonia	155,000,000
26	Latvia	87,000,000
27	Malta	44,640,000