Sunday March 28, 2021
Same rights as the Bundeswehr
Scholz is aiming for an EU army
Vice Chancellor Scholz has great visions for the European Union: A common military should be built and controlled by the European Parliament. However, that would only work if the member states transfer more power to the EU. The SPD candidate for chancellor calls for a rethink.
SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz is striving for a common European army, whose parliamentary control should come from the European Union (EU). “For me, a common army is part of the idea of European sovereignty,” said Scholz of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” (FAS). A European army would have to be “just as strongly legitimized as the Bundeswehr as a parliamentary army today”. However, this is “not an issue for the short term”.
Scholz said that one would need “a democratic structure” to control such an army. “And this structure can only be a democratically developed European Union.” The “democratic understanding” about the financing and legitimation of future European military operations should “take place in European bodies, which certainly include the European Parliament”. Today these powers are in the hands of the national parliaments.
Scholz said that all of this was still “a long way off”. In the short term, however, a lot would be gained “if we in the Councils of the European Union move away from the unanimity requirement and take majority decisions – in matters of foreign policy as well as in financial and tax issues”. In defense policy this is not yet possible according to the treaties in force today. Here too, however, the following applies: “Even a qualified majority decision would be a democratic decision.”
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