“Would you like the European Union to form a joint army for all member states, in addition to national armies?” (2022 survey)

33 comments

  9. “in addition to” is an important bit that might change the outcome. I’d be against it if phrased like this, but only because I want it to replace national armies

  10. Yeah, that sounds all nice and dandy in theory. Now try to put polish units under a german commander and things start getting complicated.

  12. That’s bullshit, stop wars and spending money on guns. There are so many people without water, food, health, education and jobs. Let those who want wars do their wars alone and kill each other. Peace.

  14. 33%? Based though…

    We could fend off DE, but not the whole of the EU 😉

    Curious: why wasn’t IS asked?

  16. Definitely, EU need to be seen as a military superpower (at least power) in modern world (as we can see in East), no as countries relying on help of USA .. Question is not if, but why already we don’t have a EU army ..

  23. The inability to combine political and economical pressure with the threat of military pressure is a factor in what sets us apart from the US and China. An other one would be our great energy dependence in the next decade.

    Trump has taught us that we shouldn’t rely on the US to have our backs. NATO has the member countries in Europe specialize in their own niche to make a stronger whole. The European parts of NATO are not a whole and lack a shared command structure. We are slow and that makes us weak.

    The US elections could cause a decline in support for the Ukraine in the US. If a stand still or a win hasn’t been achieved at that time I don’t think Europe is up to the task.

  24. If the EU spent 0.3% of gdp on an EU military it’d have roughly the same budget as the french military.

    If Italy, France, Poland and Spain are all for it, then why not? Would be neat

  25. Lol after this Austria vote. I cant wait for the time when one member gets invaded, but no one can do anything cause of a veto.

  26. A lot of the anti EU sentiment in the UK used the idea of a “unified European army” as an obviously negative thing that would clearly swing support in favour of isolationism. When I hear the idea I am instantly drawn to support it. How could it possibly be anything but a positive? We share the same ideals as almost all EU nations. British people are just nuts. Refuse to play with any of the other kids out of bone idle stubbornness

  27. This can only succeed if all wars are within the Schumann roundabout in Brussels and there is no war fighting in August or December when the commanders go on long vacations.

  28. I don’t know how you would even start this project. From a practical perspective there are so many different languages the troops would struggle to communicate and there are so many areas of tension between countries to complicate it further. I think you would also find people would be less motivated to fight and die for the EU than for their own nation state directly. And as we saw with the initial covid outbreak when the shit hits the fan the individual nations focus only on themselves anyway, to some extent the EU unity is a bit of a facade.

  30. Having a joint army without a well aligned foreign policy wouldn’t work. And I’m not sure we have that.

  31. I’m fully in with the idea but… and a strong but IMO, what’s worst than not having an army? having one with no clear leadership.

    So basically the army will be impossible to use or some stronger country could use it for their own interests.

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