Madrid has joined a chorus in Europe calling for a standalone force amid the growing rift with the US<\/p>\n
Spain has become the latest European nation to call for the EU to build its own army as opposed to relying on the NATO framework, citing a growing rift with the US. The idea itself, however, has split European NATO members, with many still viewing the US-led military bloc as a preferable defense mechanism.
\nWhatever the outcome of those debates, most NATO nations are engaged in an accelerated militarization campaign costing hundreds of billions of dollars in the long run, citing an alleged Russian \u201cthreat.\u201d
\nEU army: origins story
\nThe idea of a joint European army harks back to the early days of the Cold War, when in the early 1950s, France pushed for the European Defense Community, which would have brought France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg into a common 100,000-strong European force. The plan received US backing.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Is France building a new NATO nuclear euroclub?<\/p>\n
However, France later balked, fearful of a potential loss of sovereignty and West Germany gaining an oversized role while memories of World War II were still fresh.
\nStill, under Charles de Gaulle, France was highly skeptical of NATO, seeing it as a tool for US dominance in Europe. In 1966, de Gaulle pulled France \u2013 which was struggling to cling to the remnants of its colonial empire and superpower status \u2013 out of the NATO command structure.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
From De Gaulle to Macron: The place where every French leader makes the same mistakes<\/p>\n
The idea of an EU army has since resurfaced several times, most notably during the Balkan wars and illegal bombing of the former Yugoslavia. While European leaders mostly backed the US-led strikes, the internal dissent was significant, and the campaign showed a humiliating reality for the EU: a security crisis in its own backyard was being handled mostly by the US.
\nDuring the 2011 Libya intervention, it was much worse. Not only were EU powers dependent on the US doing all the heavy lifting, but the campaign also led to a European fracture. Only France and the UK coordinated the strikes with the US, while Italy was initially opposed to the intervention. Later, France and Italy worked at cross purposes, supporting different sides in the Libyan Civil War.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
The great illusion of NATO is fading fast<\/p>\n
The EU army debate once again took center stage following the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Amid tensions with Russia, bloc members ramped up military spending and drew joint procurement plans. In 2022, plans were announced to establish a EU Rapid Deployment Capacity \u2013 a force of up to 5,000 comprised of personnel from European states with a mandate for missions abroad.
\nSome EU nations, however, have called for a standalone European army with wider authority, citing Washington\u2019s growing unreliability and the need for strategic autonomy.
\nWho is in favor?
\nSpain has become the most recent proponent of the EU army idea. On Monday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares made the case in an interview with Politico, saying, \u201cWe cannot be waking up every morning wondering what the US will do next \u2026 our citizens deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Spain urges EU to resist Trump\u2019s sanctions<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis is the moment of the sovereignty and independence of Europe. The Americans are inviting us to that.\u201d\u00a0
\nIn a thinly veiled allusion to US President Donald Trump, Albares stressed that the EU has to be \u201cfree of dependence,\u201d as well as \u201cfree of coercion, whether it comes to tariffs or the use of military threat, [or] the consequences of someone else\u2019s decisions.\u201d
\nWhile his comments came amid a stark rift with the US over the Iran war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for \u201ca real European army\u201d already in February, stressing that the bloc needs it \u201cnot in ten years\u2019\u00a0time, but now\u201d and pledged Madrid would contribute all necessary resources.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Macron urges nations not to be \u2018vassals\u2019 of US or China<\/p>\n
In France, an EU army has long been a personal project for President Emmanuel Macron, who began calling for a \u201ctrue European army\u201d as early as 2018, arguing the continent could not rely solely on the US. One year later, he famously proclaimed NATO \u201cbrain dead,\u201d also citing failure to coordinate efforts with the US. In April, Macron also stressed that the EU\u2019s \u201cobjective is not to be the vassals\u201d of the US and China.
\nIn Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who leads the center-right Forza Italia party, has stressed that \u201cif we want to be a peacekeeping force in the world, we need a European army,\u201d describing it as a premise for \u201can effective European foreign policy.\u201d
\nPrime Minister Giorgia Meloni, however, has been more cautious, stating that the issue is not on the agenda, adding that the bloc\u2019s defense should be based on the cooperation of national armies.
\nWho is against?
\nEU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has been among the most vocal critics of the concept. In February, she described the idea of a European army as \u201cextremely dangerous,\u201d saying that its proponents \u201cmaybe haven\u2019t really thought this through practically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
EU army \u2018unrealistic\u2019 \u2013 Polish foreign minister<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are already part of NATO, then you can\u2019t create a separate army. And if you have, like the European army, and then you have the NATO one, then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs.\u201d
\nIn Poland, the bloc\u2019s most aggressive defense spender at 4.7% of GDP in 2025, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the idea \u201cunrealistic because national armies will not merge.\u201d However, he was more sympathetic to a brigade-sized \u201cEuropean legion\u201d comprised of EU citizens or even candidate states, which could be involved in foreign operations short of a confrontation with a near-peer adversary.
\nIn Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged to build \u201cEurope\u2019s strongest conventional army,\u201d but has been skeptical of a bloc-wide force due to legal hurdles, arguing that the EU should \u201cfocus on the tasks that we need to accomplish now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Deutschland \u00fcber alles? The world is not ready for German rearmament<\/p>\n
The Baltic states \u2013 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania \u2013 have historically been among the most skeptical of EU defense autonomy, fearing it could dilute US commitments. In this vein, outgoing Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds has called NATO \u201cirreplaceable.\u201d\u00a0
\nAs for the US, in 2018, Trump strongly opposed the idea of an EU army, dismissing it as \u201cvery insulting.\u201d\u00a0\u201cPerhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the US subsidizes greatly!\u201d he said at the time.
\nWhat\u2019s Spain\u2019s beef with NATO?
\nSpain\u2019s problem is not necessarily with NATO itself, but rather with the current US administration. Madrid has vehemently opposed the US-Israeli war on Iran, and refused to allow its bases to be used for attacks. Trump subsequently called Spain \u201ca terrible ally\u201d and threatened to cut off all trade.
\nThe US president encountered similar problems with the rest of NATO members, slamming the bloc as a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d and accusing it of \u201cturning their backs on the American people.\u201d Another point of friction was Greenland, which Trump threatened to annex, meeting strong pushback from the EU.
\nMilitarization on the menu \u2013 regardless of the form
\nWhile European leaders could be debating whether the EU actually needs its own army as a counterbalance \u2013 or replacement \u2013 for NATO, most of them have embraced the militarization drive. In 2025, the EU unveiled the \u201cReArm Europe Plan \u2014 Readiness 2030\u201d to mobilize over \u20ac800 billion ($936 billion) in defense investment despite the bloc\u2019s sluggish economy.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Strategy or madness? The EU is flirting with nuclear escalation<\/p>\n
European NATO members \u2013 except Spain \u2013 have also committed to increasing their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. As it is, Europe is rearming faster than at any point since the Cold War. According to a SIPRI report in April, the entire continent increased military expenditure by 14% in 2025, with European NATO members spending $559 billion for defense.
\nView from Moscow
\nRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has scorned the idea of the EU army, suggesting that before undertaking such an endeavor, the bloc should tackle a litany of internal problems, including refugees, energy dependence, and lagging NATO contributions.
\nMoscow has meanwhile condemned the EU\u2019s record militarization, saying that the bloc is \u201cusing ostentatious Russophobia\u201d as a pretense. It has also accused European \u201cpropaganda\u201d of seeking to turn Russia into a \u201cmodel external enemy\u201d to divert attention from internal crises.
\nIn addition, Russian officials have consistently rejected speculation that Moscow could attack European states as \u201cnonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madrid has joined a chorus in Europe calling for a standalone force amid the growing rift with the US Spain has become the latest European nation to call for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35427,"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-35426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t