Military of the European Union

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European Union
This article is part of the series: Defence of the European Union
Politics
CFSP High Representative Javier Solana Foreign and Security Policy Security and Defence Policy Defence Initiative Defence Procurement Petersberg tasks Foreign relations
Bodies
Political and Security Committee Military Committee Military Staff Defence Agency Institute for Security Studies Satellite Centre
Military Forces
Helsinki Headline Goal EUFOR Battlegroups Gendarmerie Eurocorps Deployments
Related organisations
Western European Union North Atlantic Treaty Organization
v • d • e

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.

An early attempt to integrate the militaries of Western Europe, was the failed 1952 European Defence Community. 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.

Contents 1 Cooperation 2 Recent developments 3 Deployment 4 Military forces and groups 5 Actors, agencies and policies 6 Member States' military spending 7 Size of European militaries 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Cooperation

Further information: European Security and Defence Policy

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.^[1] 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, 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, Jaguar-2), but the US military uses only one IFV version.

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] Actors, agencies and policies

• Common Foreign and Security Policy
• European Council
• European Defence Agency
• European Security and Defence Identity
• European Security and Defence Policy
• European Union Institute for Security Studies
• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
• Western European Union

[edit] Member States' military spending

US$ billion

The hypothetically combined EU military budget compared to foreign military powers.

	Country	Defence Budget (USD)
	France	74,690,470,000
	UK	68,911,000,000
	Germany	45,930,000,000
	Italy	32,600,000,000
	Spain	15,792,207,000
	Netherlands	12,000,000,000
	Poland	10,838,000,000
	Greece	7,648,561,000
	Sweden	6,309,137,714
	Belgium	4,000,000,000
	Portugal	3,497,800,000
	Denmark	3,271,600,000
	Romania	2,900,000,000
	Finland	2,800,000,000
	Austria	2,334,900,000
	Czech Republic	2,170,000,000
	Slovakia	1,408,000,000
	Hungary	1,376,000,000
	Ireland	1,300,000,000
	Bulgaria	730,000,000
	Lithuania	490,800,000
	Cyprus	384,000,000
	Slovenia	370,000,000
	Estonia	259,000,000
	Luxembourg	231,600,000
	Latvia	87,000,000
	Malta	44,640,000
EU combined		311,920,000,000

All figures are from the List of countries and federations by military expenditures

[edit] Size of European militaries

This is a list of European Union/EFTA/Candidate countries sorted by the total number of active troops where the military manpower of a country is measured by the total amount of active troops within the command of that country. Reserved forces which can aid a depleted active military and/or paramilitary are also listed to illustrate a country's total manpower.

Rank		Nation	Active Service Personnel	Reserve Force	Paramilitary	Total	Active troops/ 1000 citizens
1		France	359,085[6]	419,000 [7]	0 [8]	780,085	4.27
2		Germany	250,500[9]	358,650[10]	40,000[11]	683,150	3.45
3		Italy	309,000[12]	0 [12]	238,800[13]	547,800	3.42
4		United Kingdom	206,480[14]	233,880[14]	0[14]	440,360	3.41
5		Spain	177,950[15]	328,500[15]	72,600[16]	579,050	3.49
6		Greece	177,600[17]	291,000[17]	4,000[17]	472,600	16.60
7		Poland	163,000[18]	234,000[18]	21,300[18]	418,300	4.23
8		Romania	75,000[19]	0[19]	79,900[19]	173,519	4.31
9		Czech Republic	57,050[20]	0[20]	5,600[21]	62,650	5.57
10		Netherlands	53,130[22]	32,200[22]	3,300[23]	88,630	3.24
11		Bulgaria	51,000[24]	303,000[24]	34,000[24]	385,450	7.85
12		Portugal	44,900[25]	210,930[25]	25,600[26]	281,430	4.25
13		Belgium	40,800[27]	100,500[27]	0[27]	141,300	3.94
14		Finland	36,700[28]	485,000[28]	3,100[29]	524,800	5.17
15		Austria	34,600[30]	72,000[30]	N/A	106,600	4.23
16		Sweden	33,900[31]	262,000[31]	35,000[32]	295,900	3.07
17		Hungary	33,400[33]	90,300[33]	12,000[34]	135,700	3.31
18		Norway	27,600[35]	219,000[35]	29,400	276,000	5.79
19		Slovakia	26,200[36]	20,000[36]	4,700[37]	50,900	4.05
20		Denmark	22,880[38]	64,900[38]	61,500[38]	149,280	4.24
21		Croatia	21,200[39]	12000[39]	0[40]	33,200	6.63
22		Lithuania	13,510[41]	309,200[41]	14,390[41]	33,100	3.53
23		Switzerland	12,900[42]	320,600[42]	23,270[42]	347,470	47.90
24		Republic of Macedonia	12,850[43]	60,000[43]	7,600[43]	80,450	6.28
25		Republic of Ireland	10,500[44]	14,000[44]	0[44]	24,500	5.78
26		Cyprus	10,000[45]	60,000[45]	750[45]	70,750	12.80
27		Slovenia	9,000[46]	20,000[46]	4,500[47]	33,500	1.21
28		Estonia	5,700[48]	39,000[48]	11,000[48]	55,700	4.13
29		Latvia	5,500[49]	14,050[49]	3,200[49]	22,750	2.13
30		Malta	2,140[50]	0[50]	0[50]	2,140	5.37
31		Luxembourg	900[51]	0[51]	612[51]	1,512	1.92

• Approximate Figures
• Source of active duty information: Center for Strategic and International Studies 2006 and Jaffa Center of Strategic Studies
• Source of population information: List of countries by population

[edit] See also

• European Union Association Agreement
• Council of the European Union
• European Defence Community
• History of the European Union
• Three pillars of the European Union
• European Aeronautic Defence and Space
• BAE Systems

v • d • e Militaries of European Union member states Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Ireland · Italy · Latvia · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · Netherlands · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• European Defence Agency - official website
• European Defence (NGO) - independent information on EU military capabilities
• A European regiment in EU battle groups: The presentation of the Eurocorps-Foreign Legion concept at the European Parliament in June 2003
• Online Resource Guide to EU Foreign Policy

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