Originally Posted by
melmothtw
Probably the same folks who complain that Europe does not do enough for its own defence and relies too heavily on the NATO (read, the US) are the same folks who are here deriding the EU Battle Groups. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
MelM
A little disingenuous. The US's calls for NATO's European states to do more is just that. Unfortunately, that rallying cry has had very little impact (see lack of German defence spending etc).
And in your link, 'Europe' is used as a short-hand for 'the European Union'. Of course we will lose power within EU decision-making bodies.
Given that there is no prospect of NATO's European states substantially increasing defence spending/capacity, and the neutrality of several of the EU member states, the EU's BG will only ever come from the same ORBAT that should support NATO.
Meanwhile, the BBC (6 o'clock news on BBCR4) reported that it was the EU Commission who asked UK to withdraw from this commitment.
Regards
Batco