French President Macron announced he will host a summit of the 27 heads of state of the European Union in Versailles on March 10 and 11 to discuss a steep change in European defense policy.

31 comments

  1. Given recent comments from Leo and MM, anyone else think we’re unlikely to veto moves for a European army in the current political climate? Maybe we could get ourselves an out akin to the Lisbon Treaty?

  2. It’s safe to say Europe needs some kind of shared army or central defense strategy

    If the EU can’t agree on it then I would support countries starting a European military alliance independently.

    Parts of the continent relied too much and assuming America would save the day if things went bad but it feels like that America is 1 bad election away from bombing Europe itself. So NATO isn’t reliable in the long term.

    Would be great if Ireland was part of such a thing but as a I keep saying, our entire defense strategy is going “oh no I left my army in my other jacket, would you mind picking up this one and defending us this time”. We are geographically luckily at least.

  3. I’m not sure what to make of this to be honest.

    Its dangerous to an extent , entering into these huge defensive alliances are partly what kicked off world war 1.

    Whilst I agree we need a counter to Russia and others , is that not fulfilled by NATO already ?

  4. oh boy, a tangled web of mutual defence treaties between nato, non-nato, eu and non-eu countries, what could possibly go wrong?

  7. Always see the idea of an EU army floating around.

    Still can never imagine 27 countries agreeing on a single foreign policy.

  8. The EU needs more independence in general and to depend less upon the US specifically – and both sides have been pushing for this for some time.

    Ireland specifically needs to depend upon the UK less for our defence – they are culturally and politically moving further and further away from Ireland and the EU.

    We have effectively thrown our lot in with the EU for better or for worse, and we need to take a full part in the defence of Europe.

    Not for a minute do I believe we should be taking part in empire building exercises or world policing, but I believe we need to fully join in to some sort of European Defence Force and give up the myth of Irish neutrality.

  11. I think at some point, the EU will become the European element of NATO, as one. And if we’re not prepared to commit Irish forces to it, we should at least host a European Union defence force on our soil, operating as our air defence instead of the RAF.

    However we should probably have a referendum about neutrality at some stage this year.

  16. We need to have a common European Defence Force of some kind, Russia’s invasion has changed the game entirely, Ukraine was a neutral state and was looking to join NATO only because of Russian aggression. We also need a proper air force of our own if only at least to be there to deter Russian Incursions (they have done it before).

    Honestly if this is the beginning’s of the formation of a European Army it needs to be done, Vlad’s gone full metal retard in Ukraine and no one knows for certain what other shite he could pull, we also can’t be over reliant on the Brit’s either, so long as it’s purely a defensive organisation only and not something to be used in forays outside the EU I cannot see Ireland having a problem with it.

  17. We assume that if Ireland is invaded the British would come to our assistance. I don’t think we can count on that any more. We’ve seen over the past week how Putin has used the threat of nuclear weapons to isolate a country and invade it.

  18. Russia has pushed this forward decades in the space of a week. I think the majority of people were hesitant about an EU army, including myself. But now I honestly think its the way forward.

  19. European militarisation sounds appealing and necessary, but in reality it’s just wasteful spending that ultimately leads to a mutual escalation from everyone else, leading to the people losing. And we know that the West can find a lot of loopholes to use their “defensive” alliances to wreak havoc.

    We militarise. So does Russia. America wants to keep ahead so it does too. China sees both sections of the West arming up and has to do the same. However no side is actually going to attack each other. All it does is ratchet tensions.

    I find it just so jarring that we have issues such as climate catastrophe and our own individual domestic failings in all our countries that we always seem to have an empty wallet for, but when it’s time to gear for war, we’re whipping out more spending than Bertie Ahern trying to win an election.

  21. This guy is a dictator. He wants to be Mr Europe. I have no doubt he is making all kinds of horrible “under the table” agreements with Putin right now.

  22. I really don’t like this. An EU army ensures every EU nation gets blamed equally in the case of a war starting, even if they weren’t responsible for what started it.

  23. The commission on the defence forces report published last month outlined three options for the defence forces

    1. Let them continue stagnating as a semi-obsolete undermanned service
    2. Invest just enough to actually have what we wanted in the past
    3. Expand them to actually bring them inline with other nations our size

    There’s meant to be a decision made in the next few months by government, I wonder will current events push it closer to option three than option two.

  24. As a Yank, I’ve been desperate for years for Europe to reassert itself military. The world needs someone that can tell us to fuck off when needs be.

  25. Every nation should spend a good amount on defense, a working airforce, a trained professional army etc. An EU army is not for me though, I remember a few years ago when the very notion was dismissed as a “dangerous fantasty”

  29. I think in the event that there were a referendum for Ireland to join an EU army or not, the Irish people would vote en masse against it

  31. I reckon he’s trying to sell Rafale fighter jets to Germany. Which they should choose over Swedish and American options, IMO.

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