MEPs have moved to streamline the movement of troops and armaments across the bloc<\/p>\n
EU lawmakers have backed a bill for a \u201cmilitary Schengen area\u201d that would eliminate the bloc\u2019s internal borders for the purposes of rapid troop and materiel movements in the event of a conflict with Russia.
\nTop EU officials have already used claims of an alleged threat from Russia to justify huge military spending packages, like its massive \u20ac800 billion ($938 billion) ReArm Europe plan. Moscow has labeled claims that it poses a threat to EU or NATO countries as nonsense.
\nThe proposal was originally presented by the European Commission last month and envisioned establishing an EU-wide \u201cmilitary mobility\u201d zone by 2027, aiming to cut through the bloc\u2019s bureaucracy and reduce the time different militaries would need to cross borders.
\nWith the non-binding resolution passed, lawmakers on the bloc\u2019s Transport and Defense Committees are now set to work on the bill, the European Parliament said in a press release.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
French would \u2018lose children\u2019 in potential war with Russia \u2013 army chief<\/p>\n
MEPs also passed a proposal to allocate \u20ac17 billion from 2028-2034 to \u201cmilitary mobility\u201d and dealing with long-term logistics and infrastructure issues like bridges and tunnels unsuited for use by heavy vehicles like tanks. Upgrading such \u201chotspots\u201d would cost at least an additional \u20ac100 billion, according to the press release.
\nEU nations have accelerated their militarization in recent months, freeing up \u20ac335 billion in pandemic relief funds and mobilizing \u20ac150 billion in loans and grants for the bloc\u2019s military industrial complex. Some of these funds have been made available to Kiev.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Russia outlines response to NATO\u2019s war preparations<\/p>\n
The militarization push has been accompanied by increasingly aggressive statements from officials, with France\u2019s top general, Fabien Mandon, warning French citizens last month to be ready to \u201close children\u201d in a potential conflict with Russia.
\nOn Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Europeans are \u201cindoctrinated with fears of an inevitable confrontation with Russia\u201d by being fed \u201ca lie and an irrational narrative about an imaginary Russian threat.\u201d
\nForeign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed that Moscow harbors \u201cno aggressive plans against either NATO or EU members,\u201d and is prepared to give legal guarantees to the effect \u201cin writing, on a collective, mutual basis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEPs have moved to streamline the movement of troops and armaments across the bloc EU lawmakers have backed a bill for a \u201cmilitary Schengen area\u201d that would eliminate the bloc\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}