In a few months time, 
France will take over the presidency of the European Union. The major initiative which is expected from Paris during the six months of the French presidency is the drive towards an integrated European Defence Community (CED Communauté Européenne de Défense). This is a long-held ambition of French diplomacy originally conceived as a European third way between the US and USSR hegemonies.
France will take over the presidency of the European Union. The major initiative which is expected from Paris during the six months of the French presidency is the drive towards an integrated European Defence Community (CED Communauté Européenne de Défense). This is a long-held ambition of French diplomacy originally conceived as a European third way between the US and USSR hegemonies.Although President Sarkozy has seemed keen to improve relations with the US and NATO, this has not meant that this French ambition has been discarded. Indeed the apparent reconcilation with the US and NATO enables M. Sarkozy to promote his European defence ambitions without fear of being accused of being anti-American and anti-NATO.
Over the coming months France can be expected to begin articulating the structure it envisages for pan-European defence. The sort of proposals coming out of Paris at the moment are:
- Greater defence co-operation amongst the big six European countries - UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland - in line with an emerging common EU foreign policy.
- Setting up a "European Intervention Force", a EuroCorps made up of contingents of 10,000 troops from each of the big six.
- Implementation of defence budgets to a fixed 2% of Gross National Product.
- Harmonisation of procurement and development programmes.
- Integration of armaments industries with the creation of more pan-European conglomorates.
- The Europeanisation of military bases, wherever they may be located round the world.
- The implementation of common European programmes around defence strategies for the future - communications, information systems, anti-missle defence systems.
- The introduction of common European civil protection programmes to meet threats from international terrorism - including nuclear, chemical and biological threats.
And this would be just the beginning: full integration of defence and foreign affairs is the ultimate goal of the Eurocracy. The British Army will form the GB Division of the EuroWehr; the Royal Navy will form the North Atlantic Fleet of the EuroMer; and the Royal Air Force the GB squadron of EuroAire.
Link> Le Figaro: 8 propositions pour donner à l'Union une défense commune
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