An EU Army – the great Brexiteer bogeyman, right up there with straight bananas and the sinister machinations of the metric system. I was in an argument recently with a Brexiteer who raised the prospect of an EU Army, as if it was some magnificent Gotcha.
If you listened to the frothing mob who spent years screeching about "taking back control," you’d think Brussels was gearing up to conscript pensioners into a pan-European stormtrooper corps, all while Jean-Claude Juncker personally led an invasion of Kent. But the idea of an independent European military isn’t some nefarious scheme to erode national sovereignty – it’s a necessary, pragmatic, and long-overdue step.
And now, with Trump back in the White House, muttering about NATO like it’s a dodgy gym subscription he’s been tricked into paying for, the need for European defence autonomy is more urgent than ever. He’s already made it clear – the days of America footing the bill for European security are numbered. His latest outburst, threatening to let Russia do as it pleases with any NATO country that doesn’t cough up 2% of GDP, should have set off alarm bells from Warsaw to Westminster. Yet, bizarrely, the same Brexiteers who’ve spent years fetishising "sovereignty" are dead against Europe standing on its own feet militarily.
Because here’s the awkward truth: Europe, Britain included, is far too reliant on the US for defence. The UK, despite all its Churchillian posturing, couldn’t fight a major war without American support – our nuclear deterrent is leased from Washington, our cutting-edge jets rely on US software, and without American satellite intelligence, our armed forces would be as blind as a bat on ketamine. And it’s not just Britain. Most of NATO is in the same boat. Germany, Poland, France – they all rely on Uncle Sam to keep things ticking over. France is perhaps the least reliant.
So, what’s the logical response? A serious European defence strategy – one that doesn’t involve begging Washington every time a crisis erupts. Yet, every time this idea is floated, the Brexiteer brigade, still trapped in their Cold War nostalgia, start shrieking about a "European superstate with its own army!" – as if being strategically dependent on a mercurial American president is somehow preferable to actually being able to defend ourselves.
And let’s not forget the economic reality. A proper EU military-industrial complex would be an absolute boon for GDP. Defence spending, however uncomfortable it may be, is a massive economic driver – boosting manufacturing, research, and innovation. Europe already has world-class defence firms – Airbus, Dassault, Rheinmetall – but rather than pooling resources, each country insists on making its own kit, leading to duplication, inefficiencies, and spiralling costs. Meanwhile, the Americans do it properly – one centralised defence strategy, one dominant military-industrial base. If Europe followed suit, it wouldn’t just be self-sufficient, it could actually compete globally as a major arms exporter.
And compete it must, because the world is getting far more dangerous. The United States is, at best, an unreliable ally and, at worst, a rogue state in waiting. The idea that Europe can simply outsource its defence to Washington is pure fantasy. The next time Russia, China, or any other power starts testing Europe’s resolve, there’s no guarantee the US will answer the phone. And if Trump’s latest NATO tantrum is anything to go by, we should assume they won’t.
Yet, instead of having an honest discussion about self-reliance, the same Brexiteers who wailed about “global Britain” now have the vapours at the thought of Europe not being strategically helpless. They’d rather Europe remain militarily dependent on the US, with a patchwork of underfunded, semi-compatible forces, than admit that Brussels might actually have a point. It’s sovereignty when it’s Westminster, but tyranny when it’s the EU.
The irony is, thanks to Brexit, Britain has now shut itself out of the very defence cooperation that would make it stronger. The EU is moving towards greater defence integration, and instead of leading the charge, the UK is left watching from the sidelines – reduced to a strategic afterthought, not a global player.
If we had any sense, we’d rebuild defence ties with Europe, stop peddling the delusion that we can go it alone, and ditch the Brexiteer fairy tale that an EU Army is something to fear. Because the real threat isn’t a phantom European superstate – it’s a world where we’re weak, isolated, and still pretending we’re a great power when, in reality, we’re just another mid-sized nation caught in a storm we can’t control.
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