Soon after she took up her post as President of the EU Commission, Ursula Von Leyen said, ‘soft power alone won’t suffice today if we Europeans want to assert ourselves in the world. Europe must also learn the language of power’. It was a clear statement that the EU should become a military power.
This ambition of the EU bureaucracy had faced previous difficulties. Trump’s project of America First shocked his former allies. Moreover, when Britain was a member of the EU, it wanted the EU to accept US leadership through NATO. However, with its departure and the Ukraine crisis, an opportunity has arisen for an EU army.
The first moves in this direction can be traced back to the formation of the Permanent Structured Co-Operation agreement in 2017. This was described as ‘an ambitious, binding and inclusive European legal framework for investments in the security and defence of the EU’s territory’. Varadkar only gave the Dail two days notice of a motion for Ireland to join. It was a deliberate move to close down public debate. In joining, Ireland agreed to:
‘Regularly Increase their defence Budget’. The target figure for PESCO is 2% of GDP and in the Irish case, this would mean a jump from €900 million a year to €4.5 billion. This is at a time when there is a massive housing crisis and horrific waiting lists for hospitals.
Devote 20% of its total defence budget to spending on Military Equipment. Instead of a focus on manpower for civil projects such as flood relief, the EU dictates the type of equipment needed for a fifth of the budget.
Agree to an intensive involvement in a future European Defence Fund. This is about building up an EU arms industry so that huge profits can be made.
Once the crisis in Ukraine broke, the EU leaders spotted a major opportunity and made a number of decisive moves.
They used the ironically named European Peace Facility to supply arms to Ukraine. Up to this, they had been prohibited from supplying arms in conflict situations. But now they have set a precedent for using the €13 billion ’peace facility’.
They have encouraged Germany to break its longstanding restriction on building up a strong army.
They have healed the breach with the USA and are now back in lockstep with NATO.
NATO has deployed 22,000 troops to Eastern Europe. These are drawn from its combat-ready NATO Response Force.
Later in March, this will be taken another step further when EU leaders will discuss a document known as Strategic Compass.
Here the ambition is to develop a ‘European Union Rapid Deployment capacity of up to 5,000 troops supported by strategic enablers’. It also seeks to establish a system for ‘ jointly investing in key military capabilities to operate on land, at sea, in the air, in the cyber domain and in outer space.’
It could not be clearer. They want to create an EU army and this is why Fine Gael has escalated its rhetoric attacking Irish neutrality. They pretend that military neutrality is ‘outmoded’ and even speculate on possible Russian attacks on Ireland in the future.
None of these sinister moves will help the people of Ukraine. Their main hope is that their own resistance combines with the growth of a Russian anti-war movement to stop and overthrow Putin.
The EU leaders and their armchair generals in Ireland, however, are thinking only of the future. They want to send Irish troops to fight wars for a Western imperial alliance. That is what is really at stake in the torrent of media rhetoric over the past month.