COMMON EU ARMY THE 'LOGICAL NEXT STEP'
By Peter Norman in Brussels and Andrew Parker in London
Romano Prodi, the next European Commission president, yesterday held out the prospect of a common army for the European Union and warned that countries which did not participate would be marginalised.
In an interview with the BBC's On the Record programme, Mr Prodi said a common army would only come after "years and years and years".
But he said it was a "logical next step" in creating a common defence policy for the EU after merging national defence industries. He pointed out that trans-national defence mergers were already taking place, as in the case of the Italian and British helicopter industries.
Mr Prodi, Jacques Santer's successor, who is expected to take office by September, suggested countries could decide not to join a common army, citing neutrality as one possible reason for opting out. But if the EU member states went ahead with the idea it would be "inevitable" that the soldiers of participating states should be called to fight by a European commander and under a European flag.
The alternative would be to "be marginalised in the new world history". If individual countries such as Germany, Britain or France declined to join, they would not be strong enough to prevent this happening to them.
The UK rejected Mr Prodi's proposal. A spokesman for Tony Blair, prime minister, said: "Our view is that Nato is the cornerstone of any defence capability. There is no question of a European army as far as we are concerned."
The US is also deeply wary of the creation of any standing European force outside the framework of Nato.
Mr Prodi said a European defence policy made economic sense. Europe spent the equivalent of two-thirds of the US defence budget while its defence potential, in terms of the forces it could put in the battlefield, was "maybe one-tenth" of that of the US.
Mr Prodi's comments show how the development of a "European security and defence identity" has climbed up the EU policy agenda in recent months, pushing fears of lost sovereignty to one side. The war over Kosovo has greatly accelerated policy planning following the initial stimulus provided by last year's defence discussions in St Malo, France, between Mr Blair and Jacques Chirac, the French president.
Germany, which currently holds the presidencies of the EU and the Western European Union, the European defence grouping, has promised a report for the EU summit in Cologne on June 3-4 so that the leaders can decide the next steps towards a common defence policy.
Günter Verheugen, the minister of state at the German foreign ministry with responsibility for Europe, told the European parliament last week that the EU must have the capacity for its own military crisis management.