Some Military Bite for the EU

The 15-member European Union wants to add some military heft to its economic power. In Helsinki today it will polish its plans to create a pan-European rapid reaction force of up to 60,000 troops that could be used for humanitarian, rescue and peacekeeping missions. The Clinton administration, while concerned that a separate EU force might affect NATO’s cohesion, has given its wary approval. In fact, Washington should cheer on any step that would lead the Europeans to contribute more to collective security, something U.S. administrations have long urged.

The idea for an all-EU force grew out of Western Europe’s embarrassing recognition that it was incapable of effectively intervening in successive crises in the Balkans. The 78-day air war over Kosovo and Serbia was an essentially American show that exposed the thinness of European military strength. The problem remained even after the bombing stopped. George Robertson, NATO’s secretary-general, notes that even with armed forces totaling nearly 2 million “the European allies had to struggle hard to get 40,000 to go and serve in Kosovo” as peacekeepers.

Whether the EU has the will to make a rapid reaction force a reality remains to be demonstrated. While the EU countries are collectively about as rich as the United States, they spend only about half as much on defense--$140 billion annually. Germany, with Western Europe’s largest army, this year spent only 1.5% of its gross domestic product on defense, compared with 3.2% by the United States.

All the major European countries have unmet domestic needs that are likely to claim a growing share of their budgets. At the same time European leaders are highly conscious that their military inferiority adversely affects their political status. Closing the gap with the United States in such key areas as precision-guided munitions, troop lift capability, intelligence and all-weather air operations would require billions in new spending. Few leaders are eager to shoulder that political burden.

All decisions about military operations by the proposed EU force would have to be made unanimously, though no member state would be required to provide troops or other military assistance. Financing would be shared by all 15 states. Still to be worked out is the relationship between the EU force and NATO, plus key questions of command and control. France, for one, ever unhappy with the prominence of the United States in global affairs, insists that the EU force must in no way be subordinated to NATO.

Yet, as the Europeans privately admit and as experience has shown, collective action in the security sphere has inevitably required that the United States agree to lead. The EU wants to have the capability of going it alone militarily if need be. Washington should wish that effort well, even as it resignedly waits for the 911 line from Europe to ring once again.