Vaunted EU military headquarters dismissed as a ‘call centre’
Fears raised of push for EU army after Macron’s choice of defence minister
EDITOR EUROPE
A MUCH-TOUTED European Union military headquarters poised to be launched in the coming days has been dismissed as a “call centre” that will be staffed by “eight to nine people” with other jobs.
Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, confirmed last week that a socalled Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) facility would be formally launched in a few days.
Although the UK blocked the creation of the EU military unit this week, objecting to the use of the words “operational HQ” in the text, a Whitehall source insisted its remit was limited and little cause for concern.
“The so-called ‘HQ’ amounts to eight or nine people all of whom have existing jobs and will come together to work with the existing general who heads the EU military. It’s about as low-ambition as you can get away with,” he said.
“It’s definitely not an operational headquarters. It’s not allowed to command operations, it can only oversee missions.”
British fears over plans for an EU army grew this week after Emmanuel Macron, the new French president, appointed an ultra-Europhile defence chief with close links to Germany. Mr Macron stunned his own camp, along with the rest of France and its allies, by naming Sylvie Goulard, an arch-federalist MEP with no experience in military matters, as his “armed forces” minister.
Mr Macron pledged to boost EU defence on his first foreign trip to Berlin this week, where he met Chancellor Angela Merkel. Days later, European officials announced they would push ahead with plans for an EU defence fund, with a possible annual budget of €5billion, and the launch of an EU military headquarters “in the coming days”.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, Ms Goulard’s much-respected predecessor, has been promoted to lead France’s newly-named Europe and foreign affairs ministry.
While Mr Le Drian was seen as “agnostic on EU defence ambitions”, British defence chiefs are concerned that Ms Goulard’s appointment could “change the game,” said a senior Whitehall defence source.
François Heisbourg, who headed Mr Macron’s campaign defence team, said he was “discombobulated” by Ms Goulard’s appointment.
Geoffrey Van Orden, a former British army brigadier and Conservative Party MEP, described Mr Macron’s moves as “part of a wider ambition to create a separate defence capability, an EU army in short. That would be detrimental to Nato because it would be a complete distraction, and would create divisions between Europeans and North Americans among others.”
Mr Macron, 39, who clinched the presidency on May 7, has been clear about his aims to create “strategic autonomy” for EU defence, warning that Europeans must “learn to live with the fact that Washington wishes to, in the long term, concern itself less with the security of our continent”.