The European Defence: Crisis or unwillingness?

The European defense accuses fuel. The reluctant France, Great Britain and Germany balks is still paralyzed when spoken army.

It is a sea serpent "Europe of defense" has become a political as well as chestnut media that surfaced at the option of military intervention. During the war in Libya in March 2011 when the first dynamic Cameron-Sarkozy has accelerated a process slowed by heavy military divergences between Member States. During the intervention in northern Mali then when Europe was limited to providing logistical support to France, the only European state to the origin of the deployment of troops on the ground "lack of preparation diplomatic enough, "stated a few days ago the former Defence Minister Hervé Morin on The Point.fr.

Despite political support and reiterated its proposal to train the Malian army, Europe has not unanimously supported the French effort. However, the creation of a terrorist sanctuary in the Sahel region of interest throughout the European community, directly referred to in the many videos of terrorist groups in the region. "It's time to end the fragmentation of initiatives," Francois Hollande considered during its passage through Parliament in Strasbourg, where he called for a harmonization of EU positions in international fora, because "Europe must speak with one voice. "


A Europe that has stalled

Several factors may explain the oiling of "European defense". The first is economic. The crisis has significantly affected the amount of defense budgets of European countries. For example, the budget of the Ministry of Defence French was cut nearly 5 billion euros over the period 2009-2013. Cutting unwelcome when the French army finds its delay in robotics and war procrastinating on possible solutions, r brings Slate.fr . At the same time, several Member States have called for better convergence of European forces, including France plays a role, but remains isolated in its design.

The second reason for blocking is probably the most important: the lack of political will. European public opinion is focused on the adverse effects of globalization and disregards an advanced political and military Europe. The other part of the problem is structural. Every attempt recovery of France faces NATO, development and better considered. Twenty-one EU member states are also members. "The existence of NATO has a direct effect on European defense budgets," says the General Bentégeat, former Chief of Staff of the French army, who led the Military Committee of the European Union between 2006 and 2009. Therefore difficult to argue for a space on the Military tightened only Europe despite a clear U.S. dominance of NATO (50% of the financial and military resources 75%). Anyway, in the current state, a "European defense" has, by definition, "not intended to compete", but rather to complement it. One of the only pro-European partners of France in this area is still in Germany. Problem, it demonstrated an ambiguous behavior. Big contributor to NATO, Europe's largest economy is in favor of a "Europe of defense", but limits its involvement in foreign interventions. Even going so far torpedo reconciliations between French and German military contractors, as was the case with the judgment of the EADS-BAE merger last October . "Germany has a strong tropism otanien," said Danjean MEP, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (Sede) in the European Parliament. "They have the constitutional constraints that we know," he says, before recalling that Germany remains "very active in Bosnia and Kosovo."

Delusions and tools already in place

Some comparisons between Member States bilateral still occurred. Starting with the Lancaster House agreement in 2010 between France and Great Britain (which together account for 50% of the total military capacity of Europe) for which the European context was not mentioned in the text, as was the case at the top of Saint-Malo in 1998. Franco-British defense came out of reinforced before experiencing a first blunder in the naval field in May 2012. The English have preferred, for reasons of cost, an aircraft carrier platform on which the French aircraft can arise ... In addition, Great Britain, who still questions about its European future, refused these agreements with France are integrated into the defense mechanisms of the EU and locks for many years creating a headquarters European military.

However, we can not say that nothing is in place. Almost all the decision-making chain - modeled on the otanien - is active. Certainly, the British, yet they are blocking the budget of the European Defence Agency, which is only 30 million and the EU battle groups - about 1,500 men - have not yet been deployed due to lack of stresses, but the Military Committee and the Political and Security in the EU are operational. All these efforts noted, the verdict is clear: "Europe of defense" is stopped for more than ten years, according to the report Védrine given to François Hollande in November 2012: "No major operation has been place since the creation of EADS in 1999. " The same document notes that none of what has been accomplished "could trigger far from true dynamics," despite "a true overall processing capacity of crises: economic, civil and military." So no need to expect an acceleration of the project before "at least ten years," the most optimistic.