Von der Leyen cools on EU army as Trump fuels demand

Telegraph

01-03-2025

Ursula von der Leyen has distanced herself from her past support for an EU army, despite Donald Trump fuelling demands for the creation of a joint European fighting force.
European governments are scrambling to boost their collective defence amid concerns over deteriorating relations with Mr Trump's administration, as well as fears US troops will pull out of Europe and weaken Nato.
These concerns would have been only exacerbated by Volodymyr Zelensky's disastrous Oval Office meeting with Mr Trump on Friday, which descended into a shouting match.
The crisis has boosted calls to ensure Europe can act independently of Washington, and raised the long-distant prospect of an army coming a step closer.
In 2015, the European Commission president who was then Germany's defence minister, said: 'Our future as Europeans will one day be a European army.'
Mrs von der Leyen's officials played down those comments this week when The Telegraph asked if she thought that day was getting nearer.
'The president has always been very clear on the fact that troops and their organisation are absolutely the responsibility of the member states,' a commission spokesman said.
European leaders, faced with Mr Trump's insistence they will police the peace in Ukraine, have been shocked into action.
On Monday, Jose Manuel Albares, Spain's foreign minister, urged plans for a joint rapid reaction force, potentially including commandos, to be accelerated.
He said the 5,000 soldier-strong group 'could be the embryo, even, of a European army that we have often talked about' before EU leaders meet for an emergency summit on defence on March 6.
'I really believe that the time has come that the armed forces of Europe must be created,' Mr Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference in February2025.
'Let's be honest, now we can't rule out that America might say 'no' to Europe on issues that might threaten it.'
Independent from US
On Sunday, Friedrich Merz, Germany's chancellor in waiting, said Europe had to make itself independent from the US and warned Nato could be dead by June.
He told reporters: 'It is five minutes to midnight for Europe,' days after suggesting Germany could ask for the shelter of Britain and France's nuclear deterrent.
It was an astonishing intervention from an election winner on the night of his victory who was, until recently, one of Germany's most nakedly pro-US politicians.
Mr Merz's opinion matters. The leader of the conservative CDU, which is also Mrs von der Leyen's party, should soon take the reins of Europe's largest economy.
His comments will have come as music to the ears of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who may be enjoying his 'I told you so' moment.
He has urged his allies to do more on common defence since Mr Trump's first term.
Back in 2018, Mr Macron declared that Europe could not be protected without 'a true European army'.
Jean-Claude Juncker, Mrs von der Leyen's predecessor as commission president, called for an EU army in 2015.
Mr Macron eventually extracted some reluctant words of support from Angela Merkel, then German chancellor, but little progress was made.
The UK, still an EU member, would have opposed any concrete plans on the grounds they risked undermining Nato. Mr Macron now hopes the Paris-Berlin engine of EU policymaking can finally deliver the 'strategic autonomy' he wants.
The European army has long been a niche obsession of fearful Brexiteers and enthusiastic arch-federalists. Could its moment have finally arrived?
Long and wasted years
The idea of a supranational European military force has periodically raised its head since the European Defence Community was discussed in the 1950s.
France vetoed plans that could have led to a joint armed force among the six original member states in 1954, amid sovereignty fears.
Since then, the pre-eminence of Nato as Europe's security guarantor kept the idea largely on the shelf.
The EU has had multinational battle groups of 1,500 personnel each since 2007 but these have never been deployed.
'First there has to be political will,' one EU diplomat said. 'No leader wants to send troops to die under an EU flag.'
After the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Mr Macron and Mrs von der Leyen pushed for the creation of the joint rapid reaction force. The idea was this 5,000-strong unit would mean the EU would never again be solely dependent on the US in the crisis zones of the future.
It is hoped the force would be able to be used to enforce ceasefire zones, secure airlifts, safely evacuate EU nationals and provide emergency humanitarian assistance.
The scheme is supported by France and Germany on the basis of a 'coalition of the willing', as long as no EU governments object, and is also supported by Italy and Spain, which backed an even larger formation of up to 50,000 troops.
The hope is that the force, backed up a headquarters with 350 staff members, could be ready to deploy anywhere in the world in 2025.
The end of Nato?
'We are never going to get a European Union army, we may have a European Nato force, but it'll be extremely difficult,' said Edward Lucas, senior fellow and senior adviser at the Centre for European Policy Analysis
All Nato members were hugely dependent on US equipment and resources, for example in mid-air refuelling.
Command and control in Nato was done by the US and that would have to be rebuilt by the Europeans if the former pulled out after 80 years of protecting the continent after the Second World War.
'Britain could probably command a division. We can't field one, and most European countries could struggle to put a brigade in the field,' Mr Lucas said.
He added: 'I think we're in a post-Nato era and we're reaping the harvest of our three decades of eating the peace dividend.'
Given such challenges, not to mention the constitutional neutrality of EU members such as like Austria and Ireland, Brussels is now focusing on ramping up the defence industry and finding ways to boost spending.
Where's the money?
The EU as a whole spends about 1.8 per cent of its GDP on defence. According to The Economist, it will need to spend between 4 and 5 per cent to be able to defend itself without the US.
Among the ideas being considered is the pooling of common debt to buy weapons, which is controversial in several richer member states, further joint research funding and a greater role for the European Investment Bank.
Sir Keir Starmer has held talks with Mrs von der Leyen about how Britain can be involved in raising finance for Europe's collective defence and continued support for Ukraine.
A European Commission spokesman said: 'The defence industry is an industry in the single market. And industry and the single market are the competence of the commission.'
Brussels could also act on military mobility, which helps 'armed forces and their equipment to move around the EU with ease'.
Military mobility was critical for security and resilience and 'an additional deterrent', the spokesperson said.
The dream marches on
'Even if it will not be possible in the short term to make one big jump towards a European army, we can move forward step by step,' said Luc Frieden, Luxembourg's prime minister, in 2024 as he suggested a smaller group of willing states could take the plunge first.
Andrew Duff, a former Liberal Democrat MEP and former president of the Union of European Federalists, believes it has come a step closer.
'But a fully integrated EU army is years away, and will probably only crystallise when Putin has his next crack at Ukraine,' the European Policy Centre think tank fellow said.
He added, 'The top thing now is to fast track Ukraine into the EU. Ukraine as a member state will quicken the development of the EU military dimension.'
Rob Jetten, the leader of the opposition Democrats 66 party in the Netherlands, recently shared an image of tanks, battleships and jets heading into battle under the flags of Europe on social media.
Steeds meer Nederlanders steunen een Europees leger 🇪🇺
Als we ons eigen continent willen beschermen, kunnen we dat samen doen. Met één sterk Europees leger in plaats van een tiental losse systemen. Toon nu daadkracht en wacht niet af tot het misgaat. Deze tijd vraagt om actie! pic.twitter.com/1WQtXlvFVn
— Rob Jetten (@RobJetten) February 26, 2025
The meme is doing the rounds of the majority pro-EU European Parliament, sources said.
'If we want to protect our own continent, we can do it together. With one strong European army instead of a dozen separate systems,' he posted.'These times call for action!'
An Ipsos IO survey for state broadcaster NOS this week found that half of Dutch people now supported the creation of an EU army.
But it also found that only 18 per cent of young Dutch people would be prepared to actually join it.