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Military of the European Union

At present, there is no military of the European Union, as the European integration has not developed very far in the area of defence. There have however been a number of defence initiatives, peacekeeping operations and organisations established in the context of the European Union (EU). The actual defence of the Union is the domain of individual Member States.

The European Union member-states co-operate militarily in various ways. Many member states are also members of NATO, and there is a defence organisation called the Western European Union. However, the memberships of the EU, WEU and the NATO European countries are not the same. Indeed, some EU member states are constitutionally committed to remain neutral on defence issues. This article uses the word military in its U.S. English sense, i.e., of armed forces.

One of the issues that the now defunct European Constitution was going to address would have closed down the WEU as a separate organisation and have the EU institutions take on the WEUs defence role. 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 European Rapid Reaction Force. However, some EU states may and do make multilateral agreements about defence issues outside of the EU structures. In that sense, therefore, there is no "military of the European Union".

In 2004 EU countries took over leadership of the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina from NATO - see EUFOR - which was given the branding of an EU initiative as the EU sponsored the force to further the force's image of legitimacy.

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European 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

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Cooperation

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.

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. However the cumulative effect is much less than it seems due to duplication of capacities in individual militaries.^{[citations
needed]} 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, Leopard 2, ERC-90, AMX-30, Challenger 2, Ariete-C1,Centauro,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, Puma, Puma (AFV),CV9030, Jaguar-2), but the US military uses only one IFV version.

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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)

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.

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.

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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

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Actors, agencies and policies