A top bureaucrat for the European Union says that the 28 member bloc needs a standing army of 60,000 that could be deployed around the world if need be.
During a European Parliament hearing into his candidacy as vice president for foreign affairs and security on Monday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s incoming security chief, said: “The European Union has to learn to use the language of power.”
Borrell, a 72-year-old Spanish socialist who is set to become EU’s foreign affairs chief next month, said that the union should go further than its current 35,000 men and women who are available to be deployed worldwide.
“That’s already impressive, but we have to do more,” Borrell said. He urged EU lawmakers to “reinforce the EU’s international role and further our military capacity to act”
“The EU has to be more operational on the ground. We have to be ready to deploy forces, starting with our neighborhood,” Borrell continued.
The Spanish Eurocrat called on lawmakers in Brussels to up the number of troops available to be deployed to at least 55,000 to 60,000.
“We should pull our national sovereignties together to multiply the power of individual member states. And I am convinced that if we don’t act together, Europe will become irrelevant in the new coming world,” he added.
Last November, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the creation of a “real European army” to deal with the Russian threat and to rid the EU of its dependence on the US. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quick to back the idea and enthusiastically echo Macron’s sentiments.
Others in the bloc haven’t been so keen to accept the idea. The UK, Visegrád countries (V4), and Romania have all voiced that NATO should remain the institution that guarantees security on the continent.
If Mr. Borrell truly believes that 60, 000 readied EU troops would be sufficient to ward off the readied enemy in Europe then he nay be a special kind of stupid. With all due respect.
I agree with Borrell & Macron, the EU should have a larger Army ready to deploy. The USA is getting awfully stretched out financially as well as Our Troops. We’ve got to be able to protect ourselves. Mexico is only helping the USA bcuz of President Trump
We have this huge deficit with China, meanwhile they’ve got their greedy grubs in almost everything in the USA. Stealing our intellectual property and most everything we buy is from China or their surrounding Countries, don’t think that they aren’t being controlled by China. The quality is real poor, also.
BUY AMERICAN QUALITY! We may have to tighten our belts and accept less wages and
the economy will have to adjust so we can survive here. If no one can afford the insurances they’ll have to adjust also if they want to stay in business and so on
European gun-boats in the Med – and if Erdogan pushes his luck? Send all the illegal refugees back to Turkey across every European border back into the arms of this new ‘demented Caliph’.
But Europe continues its madness by trusting this Muslim Maniac.