Information Related to "World News and Trends - July/August 2008"
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Plans for a European army (in place of NATO) simply won't disappear and continue to resurface from time to time. The European Parliament is now considering proposals for setting up EU forces under EU command. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a May 5 security policy conference in Berlin that he favored the establishment of a European military force and that he wanted moves in this direction to be sped up. He also noted that the EU treaty currently being ratified byEU member states allows a group of member states to work together toward establishing a common defense policy.
According to Shadow Conservative Defence Secretary Liam Fox, Brussels should not get in the way of British forces in Afghanistan and other areas where EU policy could potentially undermine NATO. Dr. Fox stated: "This is another example of the EU getting involved in an area in which it has no business. NATO must maintain its primacy in European defence. Anything less, including a Euro army, is simply unacceptable" (Daily Express, June 5, 2008).
In the same article Geoffrey Van Orden, British Conservative policy spokesman concerning Defense in the European Parliament (EP), plainly stated the following: " This [Euro] report is a manifesto for an EU takeover of our armed forces-the greatest prize for the federalists and their ambition to create a state called Europe" (ibid., emphasis added throughout).
Van Orden is a member of the EP. The European Union wants to consolidate its powers, moving forward as quietly as possible on many fronts-eventually making Europe into one country with the present nation-states redrawn on the political map and reduced to the status of provinces-with a powerful Germany at the center of it all.
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