Hi Guys,
Please forgive a civvy private pilot who would like to comment.
It is often said that a camel is really a horse that has been designed by a committee.
However when the committee consists of 28 members, all coming from different cultures, speaking different languages and harbouring different hidden agendas and policy imperatives, what you are likely to end up with is something much less useful than a camel. In all probability what you will end up with will be a two headed Kangacrocopotamus with one wing and three legs.
This was certainly our civvy experience with JAA and that only involved a dozen Member States. EASA has been no better. Now that's just the organisational mess in prospect. If we now turn to financing it gets even more iffy.
Every state in NATO is supposed to spend 2% of GDP on defence. In fact, apart from the US and the UK, NONE of them do. And even the UK had to more or less cook the books this time round in order to be able to claim we were still contributing our 2%. (Apparently they had to add in things that previously were left out of the reckoning).
The US taxpayer is shouldering 75% of the burden. How much longer the US taxpayer will put up with this nonsense is anybody's guess.
If we now have to have an EU comic opera army (and navy and air force), complete with its Tower of Babel infrastructure, I can see the US taxpayer finally losing his/her temper and causing their government to pull out all together.
In short, I don't envy you guys if this madness goes ahead.
Regards,
BP