As negotiations between Britain and the EU over Brexit get underway, a senior German politician has declared that a “European Army” is inevitable.
Hans-Peter Bartels, the parliamentary commissioner for the Armed Forces, insisted: “In the end, there will be a European Army.”
Bartel alleged the age-old system of national armies accountable to national governments was “disorganised, technically fragmented and duplicate structures unnecessarily”.
He claimed Europe’s peoples “do not want to go down the solitary national path anymore. Not in Germany, not in the Netherlands, not in the Czech Republic and not in Italy.”
He added: “Every step in the right direction [towards an EU army] is important.”
Bartel’s comments follow European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announcing a European Defence Action Plan, amongst other measures to deepen EU military integration.
Eurosceptic groups such as Veterans for Britain, which campaigned for Brexit under the chairmanship of Falklands War hero Major Julian Thompson, has repeatedly warned against the dangers of Britain becoming embroiled in these plans despite its formal departure from the bloc.
Towards the end of 2016, Maj-Gen Thompson warned that Government officials were signing Britain up to military integration schemes so ambitious that he considered it tantamount to “the UK joining the single currency in its last two years of EU membership”.
“The plans use all means at the EU’s disposal to encroach on every single area of UK defence planning,” he said.
“Policy, procurement, funding, intelligence services, command structure and defence research are all appropriated by these EU plans.” READ MORE
