At the EU summit last week in Paris, the EU states also promised those EU countries that are not members of NATO, such as Austria, military assistance in the event of an attack. “It was remarkable in this clarity,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) to the “Standard” (online edition). There will be no EU army, emphasized Nehammer.
EU countries that are not members of NATO would benefit from the EU’s duty of assistance, which was referred to in the summit declaration. According to the Chancellor, this applies to Malta, Ireland, Cyprus and Austria, but also to Finland and Sweden. According to Nehammer, the Ukraine war dramatically demonstrated to the EU countries how important the common foreign and security policy is and what that means for defense policy.
Now it is a question of strengthening the interoperability of national forces, but: “What will not exist is an EU army. There is currently no attempt to do this, nowhere.” Because the entire political decision-making process has not yet been completed “in order to actually get a military deployment by an EU army on the ground,” said Nehammer.
