French President Macron Called for a ‘True European Army’

French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a “true European army” that would free the E.U. from its over-reliance on the U.S. in military matters.

Macron had long held the vision of a stronger European defense alliance. Having witnessed Donald Trump’s unwillingness to work with Europe on security issues, the French president believed it more urgent than ever to promote his greater European project.

On Tuesday, as part of a weeklong WWI commemorations tour in Verdun, Macron made a speech to call for a unified European effort to protect the region from “China, Russia, and even the United States of America.”

Many were surprised that he went so far as to group America—E.U.’s strongest ally for decades—with China and Russia as the continent’s major security threats.

Macron also condemned Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of a 1987 nuclear treaty with Russia: “When I see President Trump announcing that he’s quitting a major disarmament treaty, who is the main victim? Europe and its security,”

“We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army,” the president added. “We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States, in a more sovereign manner.”

Since Trump’s election, America’s defense spending in Europe skyrocketed from $789 million in 2016 to $789 million this year. The discrepancy between the military capacities of the two is still growing; Europe has never been as dependent on the U.S. as now.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced that the security relation between the U.S. and the E.U. was unbalanced and unfair. He demanded European members to increase their financial contributions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and even questioned the necessity for the U.S. to commit to the alliance at all. Such language provoked not just Macron but also German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in turn cast doubt on the reliability of the U.S.-E.U. alliance.

Early in 2015, as a response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged the E.U. to strengthen member states’ collaboration on not just economic policies but also defense and foreign policy matters. He suggested taking away members’ veto powers in defense-related issues and instead pursuing a simple majority vote.

Since then the E.U. has taken multiple steps to advance the goal. There was an initiative that outlined the organization’s defense-procurement needs and supported member states’ plans to jointly develop them. The E.U. also started a fund for military-related research projects. Moreover, Britain’s decision to exit from the bloc increased Brussels’ flexibility in defense matters, since Britain had previously vetoed a number of proposals aiming to expand military collaboration.

However, it seems unlikely at this point that European nations have either the will or the capacity to curtail U.S. spending in Europe and replace it with their own money.

There is no evidence that any group of European countries has the political will or economic muscle to spend sufficiently on defense to make up for the United States’ raw power.

Even though European defense spending reached $50 billion since 2015, countries like Germany still have difficulties paying NATO the agreed amount of 2% of GDP. Add to the fact military deployments still fall within the jurisdiction of individual nations, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini rightly claimed that the realization of a European army was “50, 60 or 100 years away.”

Featured image via Ludovic Marin/AP