Originally Posted by
minigundiplomat
If they wish, or they could live up to their NATO responsibilities.
if you add up all the defense budgets of the EU27 it is around 190B, only less then US and China. France and Germany spend around the same as the UK. And as you might be living in the past, the UK’s military is not exactly the might it used to be in the early 1900’s.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...tary-spending/
I agree with you that ALL NATO member states should fulfill their NATO 2 percent mark. But as you might well know, not all EU members are in NATO.
At the moment all this different Forces with different material, procedures, training etc is far from efficient. There is a long road to a EU army however, you could first streamline all of the above and do the procurement together. Only this would highly increase the efficiency. But Rome wasn’t build in one day.
Also BREXIT and the associated 50B military budget That disappeared with it together with the election of Donald has shown the necessity of a more streamlined military of the EU26. But this will take time obviously.
personally I am not overly worried for a Russian invasion as the EU is Russia’s biggest trade partner. Far more trade is being done with the EU then with China for instance. Probably as most of the Russians live in the west. And you tend to trade more with your neighbors.