European Leaders Talk of EU Army

Europe is once again talking about forming its own defense alliance. The idea of a European army—discussed on and off since the early days of the Cold War—was revived in February by Volodymyr Zelensky.

Source: https://fee.org/articles/european-leaders-talk-of-eu-army/

This article discusses with the issues surrounding the on again off again idea of creating an European Union army. With 27 nations involved, I think the problems are pretty easy to imagine. This idea has resurfaced recently due to the reduction in support of Ukraine by the U.S.

With NATO, I don't really understand the need for an EU army. I realize of course that the U.S. has pulled back some support there as well but the reality is that the U.S. has carried the vast majority of the expense and support of NATO since its inception in 1949. As of 2024, NATO expenses stood at 1.474 trillion with the U.S covering about two-thirds of it. I don't think it is unreasonable to ask that the other 31 member states pick up a little larger share. As a percent of GDP, the U.S. spends 3.38% on the military. The only NATO members that spend more are Estonia and Poland. As far as I am aware, most countries are still below their 2% minimum commitment level. I suppose an EU army might be one way to bring that up.

As an alliance, I think NATO works well with regards to its core goal of protecting members from attack. It's a little unclear (to me anyway) how a European Union army would be used. EU member countries already collaborates on defense to some degree and of course with NATO. This article points out that despite the collaborations of EU member countries today, they are not equipped for a long running conflict. This would be problematic if, for example, Russia were to invade. This seems unlikely but a little bit of extra deterrence probably wouldn't hurt. On the other hand, Volodymyr Zelensky who is the one to have revived this idea most recently has his own motivations.