Britain has rejected a call from the president of the European Commission to create an EU army in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Jean-Claude Juncker said that such a force would show President Putin “that we are serious about defending European values”.
He told a German newspaper that an EU army would let the Continent “react credibly to threats to peace in a member state or a neighbour of the EU”. It would “help us to develop a common foreign and security policy, and to fulfil Europe’s responsibilities in the world”, Mr Juncker told Welt am Sonntag. The Nato military alliance, currently the cornerstone of European defence, was not a sufficient protection for the EU because not all EU members were part of the alliance, he added.
A spokeswoman for the government said that Britain was unequivocally opposed, adding: “Our position is crystal clear, that defence is a national, not an EU responsibility and that there is no prospect of that position changing and no prospect of a European army.”
Mr Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg which has a tiny army of less than 1,000 professional soldiers, has long been a proponent of such a European force. He made it part of his foreign policy plan during the selection process for the presidency of the commission in 2014, an appointment that David Cameron tried to resist.
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At least one member of the European parliament voiced support for Mr Juncker’s suggestion. “I support Juncker in building an EU army, if it means the termination of all EU member states’ armies and is controlled by the European parliament,” Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green MEP, tweeted.
Ukip said that an EU army would be a tragedy for the UK. Mike Hookem, the party’s defence spokesman, said: “We have all seen the utter mess the EU has made of the eurozone economy, so how can we even think of trusting them with this island’s defence.”
Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, told the BBC that Russia and Nato must “take a serious look at the diplomatic options” with regard to Ukraine, or “a return to Cold War condition is very likely”.