The military dependence on the USA for the evacuation operation in Afghanistan has fueled the discussion in the EU about the establishment of a new reaction force. Germany is now presenting a concept with partners.
Together with four other countries, Germany has launched a new initiative to set up a rapid military reaction force for the EU.
The concept that became known today envisages developing the already existing EU battle groups into powerful crisis reaction forces that can be deployed at short notice. To this end, space and cyber capabilities as well as special forces and strategic air transport capacities are to be provided.
“The recent events in Afghanistan have shown once again that the EU must be able to (…) act robustly and swiftly,” says the concept presented by Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Slovenia became. For this it is necessary to «improve the availability, readiness, operational capability and competence of the armed forces» and «to make better use of military cooperation formats among the EU member states».
Specifically, the five countries are also proposing that Article 44 of the EU Treaty, which has never been used before, be used by “coalitions of willing”. Overall, this would enable more flexibility and a modular approach to crisis management in the EU and could increase the EU’s ability to act, according to the paper that is available to the German Press Agency. In addition, existing regional collaborations should be better used.
According to Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the reactions of other EU countries to the concept were “very, very positive”. It was agreed that the ideas should find their way into the so-called strategic compass, said the CDU politicians on Thursday after informal discussions on the subject in Brussels. The EU intends to use it by the spring of next year to determine which skills it needs in the area of crisis management.
The concept paper does not provide any specific information on the overall strength of the reaction force. Only the land force unit intended for this purpose is said to be able to reach the size of a brigade – that could be around 5,000 soldiers.
The previous EU battlegroup concept provides that two units with around 1500 soldiers each are kept ready, which are made available every six months alternately by different EU countries. Recently, however, there had been repeated problems in gathering enough troops. For example, there is currently only one battlegroup. The EU forces have never been deployed.
Discussions about setting up a new reaction force have been going on in the EU for a long time. They were last fueled again by the military dependence on the USA during the evacuation mission in Afghanistan. In any case, the new force should be so strong that it could theoretically take on a military operation like that of the Americans to secure the airport in Kabul.
After the Taliban came to power in mid-August, the United States made evacuation flights possible with around 6,000 US soldiers. Because of their departure, however, the Europeans then had to stop their rescue flights for people in need of protection earlier than actually desired.
It was initially unclear on Thursday whether the Greens and the FDP, who were involved in the coalition negotiations in Germany, approved the concept of the still-ruling federal government made up of the Union and the SPD. It was just as open how the plan is viewed by NATO partners such as the USA, Canada and Turkey.
Clear criticism, however, came from the left. The completely wrong conclusions would be drawn from the disaster in Afghanistan, said the deputy party chairman Tobias Pflüger of the German press agency. The problem was that there had been attempts to «democratize» a country using military means. The EU does not need a new reaction force, but should be a civil alliance.
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
