Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-15-Speech-3-273"
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"en.20061115.19.3-273"2
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"Mr President, in the early 1950s Jean Monnet proposed a European Defence Community, with a European army run by a European Minister for Defence, a common budget and common arms procurement. This project was thankfully rejected by the French after President de Gaulle opposed the idea.
Undeterred, Jean Monnet and his acolytes pursued the idea of a European political union by economic means rather than by defence and military means. Over 50 years later, we have a European Union which has almost completed its political agenda: it has its own President, its own cabinet in the shape of the Commission, its own Parliament, a single currency, flag, anthem and Court of Justice, just to name a few of its attributes.
However, if it is to be a real state it must have its own military forces, and that is what this report is about. The report calls for a common equipment and equipment procurement policy and for integrated command and control and communication systems. What better way to ensure the integration of Europe’s national military forces than by ensuring that they will begin so interdependently that they will not be able to operate independently. The militaristic pill is sugared, however, by reference to humanitarian operations and crisis management. However, call it what you will, it is an army, and if war is the continuation of politics by other means, then the European Union needs an army to pursue its foreign policy ambitions.
I am not surprised that Mr von Wogau pursues political integration by these means. He believes in political integration and is open about it, and I respect him for that. What disgusts me is that Britain’s Prime Minister, the liar Mr Blair, and his rotten and corrupt Labour Government collude with the process of integrating Britain’s armed forces into the planned European army, while pretending to defend Britain’s national interest."@en1
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