Modern approaches of the European Union to creating own armed its forces

Abstract

This article is devoted to the basic principles, stages and features of the formation of a new type of armed forces in the European Union – the pan-European army of the EU. It is noted that over the entire period of its existence, the European Union has not been able to form its own army, although attempts to implement this project have been made repeatedly – in 1999, 2003, 2004, and possibly in 2018 (in connection with the implementation of the EU program of ongoing structured cooperation PESCO). Initially, the European army was supposed to be equipped with units of all combat arms (from aviation to naval ships); its number at the initial stage should have been at least 50–60 thousands military personnel (then it was planned to increase its number to one hundred and even one hundred and fifty thousand people). However, to date, all that the EU has to intervene in armed conflicts is the multinational EU rapid reaction force, consisting of several battalion tactical groups of 1,500 persons each. These forces showed themselves quite well during the EU military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa (Somalia, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic), but they are clearly not in the full-fledged army of the European Union or even its core pulling. To compensate for these shortcomings, the PESCO program was launched in March 2018, but after two years of its implementation, the results of this program are rather modest. A good effect was achieved only in the field of «military mobility» (logistics); but on the fulfillment of a number of «obligations» of the countries participating in this program, the European Council does not even have rough information (countries refuse to give it).