EU one step closer to unified military

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https://euobserver.com/foreign/138141

>The EU budget should be used for military research and the bloc could become a defence alliance akin to Nato, the European Commission is poised to say.
The Commission is to outline its ideas in a legislative proposal on spending and in an ideas paper on defence due out on Wednesday (7 June).

>“The development of a new generation of many major defence systems is today beyond the reach of a single EU member state … ‘More Europe’ in defence and security is clearly needed”, the draft proposals, seen by Bloomberg, a US news agency, said.

>The reflection paper adds that the “nature of the trans-Atlantic relationship is evolving” and that “more than ever, Europeans need to take greater responsibility for their own security”.

>It outlines three scenarios, one of which speaks of “common defence and security” in which defence of Europe “would become a mutually reinforcing responsibility of the EU and Nato”.

>It says the EU should have “pre-positioned permanently available forces” for deployment “on behalf of the union” that could be used in anti-crisis or counter-terrorist operations in hostile areas.

>The less ambitious scenarios speak of voluntary contributions to joint defence on ad-hoc basis.

>The new military research budget is to be worth €250 million in its first year in 2020 rising to up to €1 billion a year from the €150-billion EU budget.

>It is to be spent on research into surveillance drones and cyber defence in its initial phase, but this would still mark the first time EU money had been spent directly on military assets.

>The defence integration is to take place until 2025.

More in link. Pic from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/defending-europe-factsheet_en_0.pdf