BERLIN/BRUSSELS(Own report) – The German government has announced that the EU Military Union will be officially launched this Monday, with the European Council formally adopting 17 projects aimed at creating joint EU military structures. Germany is in charge of the establishment of a European Medical Command, considered an indispensable element of future EU military operations, alongside the European Air Transport Command, which has existed since 2010. Berlin is also establishing logistical structures that would facilitate rapid interventions. The German Bundeswehr is also active in both fields within the NATO framework. The operational preparation for future military missions is influenced by a fierce power struggle between Germany and France. According to the German ministry of defense, the military union is not only aimed at reaching more “independence” from the United States, but also at advancing EU “integration,” which is difficult to achieve with civilian means.
Mandatory Rearmament
The German government has announced for this Monday the final adoption of the EU’s military program, “PESCO” (Permanent Structured Cooperation). The program, whose notification was already signed on November 13, (german-foreign-policy.com reported [1]) provides for the systematic elaboration of military cooperation within the EU. Of the 17 initial projects that will be adopted today, four will be led by Germany. The 25 participating states have agreed to “regularly increase defense budgets in real terms;” to “increase in defense investment expenditure to 20%” and “expenditure allocated to defense research and technology” to 2% of total defense spending. All participants must provide “substantial support” to EU military operations – with personnel, materiel, training, exercise support, infrastructure or otherwise.”[2] “Fast-tracked political commitment” must be assured, according to the PESCO documents, otherwise the participating states should “review their national decision-making procedures.” This could possibly affect Germany’s parliamentary reservation. The German ministry of defense is praising PESCO as the “launch of the military union.”[3]
Key Projects
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Military Mobility
The network of logistic hubs, to be set up under German authority, is given great significance. The objective is to be able to deploy EU contingents in their zones of mission and insure the optimization of the logistics, as rapidly as possible. Besides setting up the logistic hubs, the Bundeswehr will be in charge of warehousing the material, the transport routes and the availability of the necessary means of transport. The optimization of the “pre-stationing” of military material is also planned. This entails the warehousing of combat material as close to the theater of mission as possible.[8] Supplementary to setting up the logistics hub, the Netherlands is directing a PESCO project to accommodate the standardization of “military mobility.” This involves the standardization of the various national regulations concerning troop movements and combat equipment transports, to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles impeding the EU’s military movements as much as possible. Presumably, Germany will also develop parallel activities within NATO in the field of logistics. This is why Berlin – with Washington’s support – is seeking to have NATO’s logistics command located in Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany has a key position in the rotation of NATO troops toward Russia, declared USAREUR Supreme Commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges last November. Therefore it is best suited as the location for the logistics command post.[9]
Berlin vs. Paris
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Empire Unification through War
Last week, Germany’s Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen again reiterated that the launching of the EU’s military union is to achieve strategic “independence” [13] – in relationship to the United States. The defense ministry also declared that this step has an “overriding added value … at the political level:” “The EU’s integration process is receiving a new boost with the EU’s defense union.”[14] In Berlin the idea is repeatedly expressed that the EU – plagued by centrifugal tendencies and the first exit of a member state – could find a unity in wars waged together that cannot be achieved with civilian means. Germany’s Foreign Minister, at the time, Guido Westerwelle (FDP) declared in February 2010 that the “European project of a common security and defense policy” will “be a motor for Europe’s further consolidation.”[15] Shortly thereafter, a leading German daily opinioned, “a standing army for the union of all of the states – that would almost be like Europe’s new backbone.”[16] The idea of forcing the unification of the empire through war, reflects far back in German history, when in 1871, Prussia forged the German Empire – through its war with France.
Excerpts from the PESCO Notification Document can be found here.
Full article: Launching the Military Union (German Foreign Policy)
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