A EU Army will never happen - Here is why

Calls for a European Army are intensifying, especially now with an aggressive Russia to the East. What are 3 reasons that this is still unlikely to happen in the near future?
This video gives a quick and simple overview of what I believe are the biggest factors that may hinder Europe creating their own EU army. Please be advised, that this is my opinion and you may identify other important reasons.
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[@kinngrimm]

Why would an EU army dublicate NATO? Is NATO an army? I always thought it was an alliance of several armies. If the EU makes a joint army, i would expect that army being part of NATO on eyelevel with the USA. If NATO would not like that, there is still the option for EU nations leaving NATO and then the USA could concentrate on their friends in Asia, we wouldn't want to hold anyone back.

[@EUMadeSimple]

Yes. That is also what Merkel said in her speech 5 years or so ago. The EU army would be part of NATO

[@EUMadeSimple]

She mentioned they are not mutually exclusive

[@gerryhildur1345]

i think the us would generally be opposed to the forming of an eu army. not only would a proper eu army be on par with americas it would also be a direct competitor to america. it might also sour american relations to the rest of europe which would not be good for anyone.

[@kinngrimm]

@@gerryhildur1345 well if its on par, which many things first would need to happen to make that a fact, still if it would, why would the EU care about the US feelings, the other way round often enough that was not the case. A direct competitor would only be the case if not within NATO and if US/EU raltions would go sour which they do from time to time anyways and then they relax again.

[@gerryhildur1345]

@@kinngrimm they would care about feelings for the same reason why the us cares about chinas feelings and vis versa. most likely if a proper eu army would arise the need for nato would diminish or be too expensive to maintain. the big difference in relation to relations (hehe) is that there would be a decreased amount of cooperation therfore the ability for more tense situations and opening for things to go really bad

[@blizzi8428]

The quick rise of many yt-channels focusing exclusively on the EU is very promising to me. Keep up the good work, and I'm sure your channel will explode sooner or later :).

[@EUMadeSimple]

Thank you :)

[@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR]

Indeed! I am a strong beiever in the EU and can only hope the increased media coverage builds support by European citizens for further integration. It is needed now more than ever in the face of Russia's aggression and China's rise to power.

[@forzaazzurri1471]

Good job man, the content you make is of good quality. If I can give some positive criticism, I recommend not using the sound effect for picture transitions so often, it is played over 100 times throughout the video and it does become hard to listen to after some time. Most transitions should be silent, you could though include other sounds such as at minute 1:01, where adding a money sound bite would make it more engaging for the viewer, and less repetitive. I did spend a good few minutes on this because I saw you have 23 subscribers, but your content is really good and you definitely have huge potential. Good luck, you can do it!

[@EUMadeSimple]

Thanks for the great feedback :) Appreciate the time you took. you are right, there is definitely improvement potential and I will take it into consideration for my next video.

[@Marcelo_Cortes]

@@EUMadeSimple best of luck with the channel

[@Tom_Bee_]

@@EUMadeSimple I agree strongly with Forza. The script, graphics and editing are all really good for a newcomer but that sound effect is heavily overused and, dare I say it, a touch cliché

[@EUMadeSimple]

@@Tom_Bee_ thanks Tom. I have cut down on sound effects in my later videos. Hope those are better. Appreciate the feedback and feel free to let me know in future videos what else I can improve upon

[@TheBooban]

He only had 23 subscribers a month ago and now he has 5.2k? Not bad.

[@justnothing8692]

My conclusion is there will be no EU army without European Federation EF simply removes problem of who is in charge when European federation is in charge

[@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR]

Indeed, as long as there is no fully fledged european parliament or executive branch, there never will be a single insitution trusted and powerful enough to control the European army. The European army cannot be based on unanimity of all member states as it is then completely useless. I am in favor of the european parliament with a two-third majority to deploy troops.

[@willjankuvic9387]

@@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR No way! EU parliamentary discussions would come to some "decision" while the potential aggressor would have won the war already. An army needs leadership on the spot when it is up to survive. It simply makes no sense to have died because of democratic rules to arrange a two-third majority . The new dictators of our time would not wait but take advantage of slow parliamentary procedures.

[@normaaliihminen722]

Another problem is that EU is literally too big. There is no way some faceless bureaucrat who hasn’t seen military action since late 27s and sits desk all time can lead 1 million foot soldiers and different branches of supposed military forces. Oh wait it’s EU bureaucracy is EU second nature.

[@mattia8327]

@@normaaliihminen722 The US is bigger than the EU land wise and control the whole world. i dont see the problem if EU being too big.

[@SeArCh4DrEaMz]

As a belgian I am strongly in support of an EU army,it is my view that we cant always rely on the americans moreover they do not always have our best interests at heart (invasion of iraq/afghanistan + resulting migrant crisis as a result). the US are our friends and partners but matters of defense and security in the EU should be managed by europeans members and not by europeans AND americans. You cant put a price on independance. On an unrelated note ; SLAVA UKRAINI !!

[@alphagamer9505]

I'm Portuguese and I'm all for an Eu army and a Eu Federation. Put The Eu all together it would be another Superpower, Europe was divided in the past and as a result was divided and served as a battleground for the Americans and Soviets. Still the same today to a degree, we can't be reliant on a country across the sea that has its own agenda and we can't be submissive to Russia just because they have gas and a lot of nukes

[@rogg8496]

@@alphagamer9505 As an American all we want is for European countries to have adequate militaries to defend themselves. We will always have your back and all we ask is that you have ours against China. I know you most likely don't see China as a threat to Europe but they are far more dangerous than Russia. Russia is on the decline in all aspects and their military is not what its made out to be as we can see in Ukraine. China is the true enemy of the West, they want to dominate us and impose their tyranny on the world. If a third world war is going to start it wont happen in Europe, it will happen in Taiwan. China as the premier power of the world would be far more devastating to the west economically and morally.

[@normaaliihminen722]

@@alphagamer9505 Blame France and Germany for playing for Putin’s side all these years ago. Merkel particularly was freaking supporter of DDR

[@user-vo5mf3ly9s]

really?Tell my friend if someday one EU country was in danger and had invasion from over country did you think that the "EU" army protect and fight for this reason??

[@Acres9]

@@normaaliihminen722 Why should we as French take the blame ? We have more historical reason to be friend with the Russian that we have to be friend with Germany or Danemark, let's be honest for a second : no one give a shit about Ukraine, everyone is following because the US have told us to do so, we have absolutely no interest in Ukraine and we have big interest in Russia, they should be on there knee thanking us for the sanctions. Oh and that's easy for some random/shitty contry like Netherlands or Belgium to want a European army : they buy all of there stuff to the americans, in French we have an expression for that : Faites ce que je dis, pas ce que je fais. (do what I say, not what i do)

[@alphagamer9505]

So basically for the eu army to happen, the eu needs to federalize first

[@sahhuseynusubov4580]

No matter whether your videos are short or a little bit long about EU issues are quite helpful and necessary for me. Good luck to hit your career Greetings 🇦🇿

[@A3racada3ra]

The biggest opponent of such a project is obviously the US. It is not in their interest to have a militarily independent partner. They rely too much on European resources (infrastructure, finance, political/economic leverage), more than they would admit. So with a strong EU military and geopolitical strategy the US would lose grip on the continent. One could argue that we need the US and that is true. However, we don't have any leverage whatsoever to make decisions on our own, so the EU always ends up as the cleaning force if shit hits the fan. Unfortunetely, EU member states rather spent time bashing each other instead of working together to make Europe a better place.

[@misterfox7491]

Keep up the good work! You deliver interesting and quality content

[@EUMadeSimple]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@sinus13]

Very high quality content for such a new channel. I wish the author good luck in the further growth of the channel. Greetings from Ukraine)

[@EUMadeSimple]

Thanks for the nice comment. Wish you all the best in the Ukraine !

[@amhuman5138]

This is really good, even observing from outside the EU where this is less relevant it still interests me.

[@sebastianhollmann9611]

In this scenario of one new military column the vote wouldn't necessarily have to be unanimous as this would be up to the treaties created in the process. The real problem is getting the members to sign this new treaty. But one could also install a joined army of just the willing member states to overcome that problem whereas it might not be optimal in terms of unity.

[@KrysFG]

I think there’s also an issue of national pride, a German won’t be commanded by a Pole, a Pole will not be commanded by a German.

[@E.Wolfdale]

As a eastern EU member, I have very little confidence in France or Germany when it comes to security issues, war in Ukraine only confirmed my concerns about the unclear goals of these.

[@TrangleC]

Sure, but what is the alternative? Do you think you can trust the USA to protect you? They already have stated that they want to shift their focus to Asia and despite pressuring Germany into not buying Russian gas anymore, they themselves (the USA) have increased the amount of Russian oil they buy by over 40% since the Ukraine invasion started. The whole reason why the EU is even considering having their own army is because they figured out that being lapdogs and auxiliary troop providers for the Americans is not that great.

[@kerim.s8801]

as a german i can tell i wish we had a strong military like in every other century.... but our politicians are american boot lickers. Von der Leyen is a corrupt ****** For EU to be independent and able to say no to any foreign power we need a strong German Army and also switch the shitty Left to central right again. Our entire Government wastes our money like he said in the video and its not only for military advisers. They are all corrupt. Brussels is also corrupt.....

[@NotUnymous]

Aaaand, have you changed your mind yet?

[@purelle88]

Where are you from exactly? I am from the east as you, and to the opposite opinion. We've made our civilization choice in time of peace. Now it's time to understand how to protect our comune choice to live together in peace and wealth, cuz we saw how many nations on this planet just hate us 🤷🏻‍♂️ Russia, China, India, Middle east, and more and more :)

[@gregor-samsa]

Either there is an united EU-army rather soon or there will be no EU. Focusing on the U=Union.

[@winnie796]

What language would the EU army speak? The French will not accept any other language than French. Very few EU countries speak French. This was evident when the EU tried to pick a common language to save money on interpreters and documents being repeated in many languages. ALL the nations agreed on English.....except for France who played the veto card. A military that does not speak the same language between units is doomed to failure. Good communication is vital to any military.

[@drpepper3838]

I don't even wanna speak English... rather join my own armed forces with our own history and people

[@leotran9259]

@@drpepper3838 tf u speaking rn 😂

[@winnie796]

@@drpepper3838 You will definitely fight harder that way as well!

[@drpepper3838]

@@leotran9259 1 this is the internet 2 I'm typing

[@terryboland3816]

English. It's an official language of the EU and is the most widely understood language in the EU.

[@xxplosiv88]

Great content, you have a new subscriber!

[@EUMadeSimple]

Thanks for subbing :)

[@baseformrolf6710]

Although I fully understand the issues and know no solution to any of them, I still feel like a european army would lead too the best outcome posible in any conflict

[@amsfountain8792]

An army is an externsion of a country. You cannot have an european army with 27 countries wanting to do 27 diferent things.

[@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR]

The European member states should integrate further as a federation. We already are partially a federation, why not make the European institutions more democratic and efficient by writing a constitution and overcoming unanimity, which prevents many visionary projects and keeps 27 copies of the same political bodies running simultaneously. The EU should not identify itself as many small nations, but rather regions that belong to a federal state, in order to be independent and competetive geostrategically compared to the US, China, Russia or (in the coming decades) India

[@switch12345678]

@@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR At the moment, the EU is subservient to US interests and harming its own economy. Even China has called for the EU to emancipate itself, but with the 1950s alliance being strengthened in the current conflict, that won't work. There will only be an independent EU or a weak EU with a NATO alliance.

[@yedimanuhutu5959]

@@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR They could intergrate, but it'll be damaging to the ethinicities & nations. One language would have to be dominant and that just kills a culture, by killing it's language. Not only that, the hands of many nations would be at a dominant power stranger to them. Saying that, i personally am against a Federation, it'll take away our indepence, culture & way of live in the Netherlands. A example is belgium, 2 language barriers; dutch & french. The french-dominated federal parliament dominates over the dutch; giving them unequal treatment.

[@drpepper3838]

@@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR but the EU is 27 nations all different...it's not one country and never will. We all have our own history culture language habits beliefs.

[@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR]

@@yedimanuhutu5959 Well, the whole point of the EU is to establish democratic structures. I would not be in favor of an EU where Germany dominates over the Netherlands fully. But given the fact that the Eu parliament is democratically and propotionaley elected, there is no danger of having no voice. Intead every EU citizen is equal, different to Belgium (taken from your description). Just because there is a formal language to be spoken as politicans, national languages don't disappear. The EU will never tell the citizens what to speak and in which language. In fact, English is already learned and becoming more and morep opular, no matter whether the EU exists as a federation or not. The fact that I write this as a 19 year old German is proof.At the same time, now that Britain is gone, there is no country that dominates as English is a neutral language and not the domestic language of any country, making it a feasible compromise.

[@someguy3766]

First the member states need to agree on an EU level foreign policy and defence institution that has ultimate authority over military matters. That needs to happen in order to actually use this European army, rather than have it sitting idle waiting for all countries to agree. And it does seem unlikely for all member states to agree to that. Perhaps this should be done more like with the Eurozone or Schengen - some countries opt in, while other countries do not. That way a 'core' of countries with aligned goals - say France, Germany, Italy, Spain, a few others, participate in a European army, while others such as Denmark or Poland support this army with their own forces as and when they support its objectives. The key benefit here being that the EU has a powerful military that is not reliant on the US to get the job done without fracturing the EU's unity by forcing everyone to join it. And NATO is still relevant to maintain Euro-American unity and still has a purpose to those countries like Poland or Denmark who are not in the EU army.

[@EUMadeSimple]

Yes i agree. A block like Schengen with countries with similar goals would be more realistic. I don't think all EU countries will ever agree, therefore a sub grouping makes sense

[@garethhahahah2037]

Reason why making a EU army is a bad idea. Most the countries that are pushing for the EU army are the countries that not meeting the 2% GDP defence spend required by NATO. They think setting up a new military is going to be cheap and easy? after all Germany and France is going to have to pick up the bill for most of it. They think having 27 countries agree on what stuff to buy is going to be easy. After all France will push for them all to buy French stuff and the Germans will push for them to all buy German stuff. And you have years of going around and around with them doing that. That would piss off the other 25 countries.

[@Korfax124]

France and Germany have a few joint weapon development programs that will probably solve that potential issue... MGCS (Tank) and FCAS (Fighter Jet) programs for your curiosity

[@sokolmihajlovic1391]

Good video, well done. If may add two important areas, which have to be, imao, developed and implemented, and an organizational requirement. 1. A strong military cannot exist without a strong military complex, which is interconnected with the private economy. The American army is so strong, not because they just spend more money, but their Military Industrial complex is developed and well connected to private companies. There is a techology transfer in both directions. F.e. GPS, the internet, cell phones, the microchip, high-res cameras, encryption methods, main usability advancements of modern day technologies and many more. Europe has to integrade existing military companies and research and development connected in all European countries taking part in the alliance, to become a strong military industrial complex in Europe. Not to forget, with this miliatary industrial complex comes a lot of money. And questions like who pays for it? Where (means which country) the research and production facilities are deployed? Where the work places are created? Who is in charge of what? And such questions. 2. To win the hearts and minds of the people in Europe, especially the mothers, who have to sent their sons and daughters into war eventually, and willing to sacrifice them for the grater good for all Europeans taking part in the alliance. A mother of a portuguese soldier, who falls protecting an Estonian forward check point, should understand the reasoning behind this, just as it would been the case if the check point would have been in Madeira. With that, a absolute neccessity, come the need for respect for the utmost importance of work of our soldiers, men and woman alike. They protect our democracy, freedom and prosperity. Nothing can exists in the long run without them. God may protect our troops, Biden does say that regularly. We need this respect for our troops too in Europe. A veto system does not work on the battlefield. We need, to quote Boris Johnson, an alliance of the willing, before oprations start. If one member does not take part, no problem. But next time the investments and the money is spent, maybe they will be overlooked too. Any military alliance of the EU members, must include Great Britain. They have the most capable military in Europe and best connected in the world as former world super power. And maybe we can reform and modernize the EU, so that Great Britain will want to join the (economic) alliance again, maybe.

[@EUMadeSimple]

Good points. I think the second one is really interesting... And this is not just on the military front but also the EU in general. European countries are still out for their own interest and often don't think of think of the bigger European picture (Whether they should is a whole different discussion). There are many example over the last decade (Covid, Greece, elections where the the EU was used as a scapegoat, etc.) where countries did what was best for them, and other European countries were therefore worse off. I believe that if we want the EU to work, we need to start thinking bigger than only nationally and get the buy-in of all people in the block. So that people understand that when 20 Billion euros of EU money go to Eastern Europe for an infrastructure project, it is for the good of all of Europe.

[@sokolmihajlovic1391]

@@EUMadeSimple Good point. For me the Ukraine crisis has an interesting aspect, beside the horrible (war) crimes commited there. That is, what makes Ukrainian an Ukrainian? The concept of language used, either be it Ukrainian or Russian or what have you (Georgian, Tatar ...), isnt actually a defining factor in beeing an Ukrainian. Is not ethicity either, there more than 100 ethnicities in Ukraine, but still fighting together to repell the enemy. So it will be interesting, after the war is over, how it envolves to be an Ukrainian, or from our perspective to what makes it to be an European, at the same time being (Ukrainian, Polish, Portuguese, you name it) and by the way beeing a supporter of Chelsea even though you dont like people are near Putin. What is the imaginary bound connecting each other in our minds in order to achieve great things together? Use ethnicity (though this concept was always blurred), language, skin color, or maybe great ideas or love for democracy, freedom, human right, we will see. Anyhow, creating a powerful military is only possible when poeple work with each other, are willing give their live for each other, and spent significant amout of resources for this. There is the American dream, Russian Mir and European ....?

[@firstlast7052]

An impediment to a European army is the question of conscription. In normal times a volunteer army is sufficient. However even the Anglosphere countries have on occasions had to introduce conscription. Would the states of Europe that have not had conscription outside a major war be willing to allow conscription of their able bodied young people either for societal and economic reasons or both?

[@FckPooTN]

Why not an EU Army which is PART of the Nato?

[@andrijherasymenko]

It'd be interesting to see a video about Frontex which some call proto EU army

[@EUMadeSimple]

That is a good idea

[@alextabet9247]

An EU army is not inevitable, it is necessary and will serve European interests far better than NATO. But for an EU army to exist, it needs to essentially have the exact same mission as NATO. In other words, be a purely defensive alliance. So like now, each EU member state will run its own military, but if one member state is attacked, the EU army will defend. Under such conditions, there is absolutely no reason why any EU member state would oppose the switch from NATO to an EU army, except perhaps paying slightly more to budget the program since now, the US is subsidizing many EU countries’ military budgets.

[@johnwhitehurst474]

As an American Retired Soldier that spent time in Germany, Greece, and Korea . I have seen a lot and for sure learned a lot. 14 months Greece special assignment Nuclear weapons. Korea 13 months, DMZ agent orange exposed my health pays today. Germany 5 years Fulda East West German Border, 2 years Crailsheim, later Stuttgart EUCOM staff J63 Civilian. So I have participated in 7 REFORGERS back to back because of my Back ground and assignments to have that placed me me in a position for them as a member in the planning and execution stage. Design of communication CEOI for forces from Regt, Division, Corp, it is automated today. Point is I did all those REFORGERS with NATO members and I can say emphatically an EU Army want work to much infighting of who is in control on and on. I say this during NATO REFORGER EXERCISES, You don't have a global communications network to accommodate one, much less a national one. What I do see is the east block countries with Poland taking lead, Scandinavia, and Finland with Ukraine forming an alliance without west Europe. UK will be invited as will other NATO members but not west European countries. They do no trust you to back them up as one can see with Ukraine. That alliance will be formed without you because you are to left leaning and that is dangerous for them. You would do a deal with Putin leaving them in a bind and they see it with Ukraine and themselves close to the enemy! You have no REAL experience with The Russian's/Muslima's as they have, not by a long shot! Hint If Macron does not Control that EU Army forget it, and if you can't see it you really need to open your eyes. US is tired of paying for NATO also one needs to see that also. RET SOLDIER USA. GET RID OF THE WHOOSE NOISE, GETS ON THE NERVES LIKE CAPS!

[@marcothebarber764]

As a Portuguese, I believe European Army is needed.

[@user-iw3uf4nf4p]

I have 1 extra reason against this and that is: A UK soldier (I know UK is no longer a member of the eu) took the military to court (He wants 1 000 000 euros) because he got a cold while begin stationed in my country. I am not really comfortable (the same can happen to soldiers in an eu army) with having people like that defend my country.

[@EUMadeSimple]

Oh wow. That is silly. But then again I could see that happening with soldiers from my own country too.

[@kamakiapeter7815]

😁 Make sure they have a handkerchief. b@#stards

[@gayleralan]

Sounds like fake news

[@terryboland3816]

That's not true.

[@purelle88]

Ah, so sad. User-iw3uf feels uncomfortable 💃🏻

[@leoisabell9797]

New channel, yo!

[@px6883]

So basically what you're saying is that the EU should first unite into a proper country with a functional government and then make an EU army

[@skralde8692]

Yea basically , but that will never happen

[@roko9419]

Sounds like a reasonable thing to do , but the fact that there are so many cultures,ideas and even the simple way of life that people can relate too(just compare balkans and western EU countries) will be very difficult so for this to happen we need 2 things, a strong leadership whit a fixed and good agenda and one leader that is impartial and understands the needs of every country ! Just my thoughts!

[@jewtubehatestruth7341]

@@skralde8692 If Europe wants to survive, it has to happen, otherwise we will become American, Russian or Chinese one day

[@skralde8692]

@@jewtubehatestruth7341 not really

[@jewtubehatestruth7341]

@@skralde8692 Tell that to Ukraine

[@kortax]

hey, i would love for you next videos to see you not using the same whoosh sound for every slide in over and over again. it is way to repetitiv. try to find more slightly diffrent woosh sounds and switch the sliding sounds up, because it gets anoying really fast. Thanks for the video though, it was really informativ :)

[@angeleyes564]

Yes good points

[@wolfgangreichl3361]

Thanks for your contribution. Obviously such an army would have to start with the core- Europeans France and Germany. They would have to work out an acceptable m.o. and then others would join in at their own timeline. Merkel talked European, but never acted this way. Her weakening of Germany's relationship to Russia can be seen as part of the reason Putin went into the Ukraine, accepting that Germany would - and under Merkel did - block all meaningful European reactions against Russia. Chan. Scholz might superficially look more pro-European at first glance, but he supported Merkel for many years, so has as yet to show hist true colors; so far only a lot of money was thrown into the gaping black hole that is the German military industrial complex. German French cooperation has yet to become reality, more than sunday speeches.

[@daemotron]

I agree, the EU as a conglomerate of institutions has a lot of issues to solve before it can become something close to a government - and that would be the prerequisite for common armed forces. Some of the current institutions (particularly the Commission) lack democratic legitimation - there are already angry yells when they regulate light bulbs; imagine the uproar they would cause by taking a military deployment decision. And then there's the more pressing issue that a lot of member states still consider the EU mainly as a vehicle to generate benefits for them - being it easy market access, cheap money, subventions, ... the idea to pay back in some way (other than money from the net donors) is not really popular among most member states. And finally there's still a "constitutional" crisis to be solved, particularly when thinking about Hungary and Poland with their pending treaty violation proceedings.

[@A3racada3ra]

The problem is that there is a lack of European spirit. The EU is basically just a framework with lots of institutions in it. This might work on an economic and (with some difficulties) on a legislative level but you won't get the common people on the street. When asked about the EU, most people will bring up some sort of answer about the institutions or their policies and not much about the European idea. Maybe that's because even high ranked politicians don't know what that idea would look like. But in order to strengthen the EU as a whole you need to unite its people of some sort. The problem with that is that historically European countries have been at war for centuries and those stories of war and conflict still stand in the way on so many levels of European integration.

[@wolfgangreichl3361]

@@A3racada3ra I agree with the 'spirit' argument, just don't know which hat or other crevice to pull it from. Maybe the red-green initiative will actually kindle it in some form; that alone would be worth a lot. Maybe the - mostly - united front against Russia will spark a European mindset, even if these lefties - I actually voted for them for lack of an alternative - won't like the military aspect of it.

[@Ward3n_Main]

Well i don’t think that it will be populair with the service members. They do it for the pride of their country, and wouldn’t join the eu armed forces because then they will not do it for their people anymore but for a multinational government organisation. And then all motivation will be lost.

[@kreb7]

People talk about Ukraine that EU didn't support forget is not part of EU.

[@epicmatter3512]

Not a big deal, but Denmark is a part of NATO but in your map at 0:42 it showed them as out of NATO.

[@EUMadeSimple]

I know. My mistake - will update the maps for future videos

[@Pax.Britannica]

4:15, I share that gleeful smile ☺️

[@francevenezia]

Your voice is somewhat soft. The volume needs to be a little louder. You need captions to follow the content. Otherwise, a great idea for a channel.

[@Carlos15Romero21]

I think the best solution is to put Brussels in charge and make sure there are many ways to get them out like impeachment so the EU doesn't become as corrupt as Putin and the president isn't given so much power.

[@AnonymousBrendan]

the idea of an eu army won't happen in the short term(1-8 years)but in the lon term(9-20 years) i could see it

[@mrmetalzeb4596]

it is not a matter of choosing whether to participate in NATO or not, the only difference is that the EU participates and not each of its individual components. but it would place a new constraint on participation in the eu to which, e.g. , Hungary and Poland would not know how they would react. however they may remain separate. the national army disappears as well as the eu one born. However in case of ambiguity it would be a mess. must think at this.

[@kamakiapeter7815]

My take. Reconfigure. EU and us to join nato as blocks.

[@slavianalbanovich9025]

in my humble opinion, we cannot rely too much on the existence of NATO. 1) It is said that we Europeans would not always want to bind ourselves to US foreign policy. 2) It could be the United States itself that leaves NATO.

[@Elias-ib1qt]

Please ditch the sound effects 👌🏻

[@gryn1s]

There are not only political reasons, but some major issues at ground level as well. E.g - what will be the commanding language? In nato - english is obvious choice. But in eu, especially with UK left, using it becomes akward. Picking next one would not be a nice process, and a potential source of new war. European national identity is just nowhere near happening. you would have huge morale issues in such an army. Best to keep EU as an economic block, because everything it tries to do in other fields just ends like failure.

[@Daniel-gs9eh]

America still uses English even after UK left them

[@gryn1s]

@@Daniel-gs9eh Yes of course. Because the majority of citizens, was of english background. Now its different. Most europeans can comprehend English, but language was never only a tool of communication. Complex politics are at play here.

[@peterlustig8636]

In 0:35 you show Denmark as a NATO member and later in 0:45 you excluded it. Nevertheless great assessment of the topic.

[@EUMadeSimple]

I have indeed. Sorry about that. Its a mistake

[@jmhn100]

Denmark is a funding member of NATO (1949)

[@delwynandrews6514]

@theeumadesimple, I say 4 the un charter n Russia having a way how it used or using it to push nato back

[@eclipsenow5431]

Regarding the NATO argument - I counter that if the EU army is vastly more efficient, and getting more bang for their buck - then NATO is getting a STRONGER ally with an EU Army. It’s not a binary ‘either / or’ but an inclusive decision for both an EU Army AND a much stronger more efficient NATO. Why wouldn’t NATO want a powerful, reliable, hands-on strategic EU Army as a member state instead of 27 smaller awfully duplicated and weaker member States?

[@cameronwixcey9692]

This topic never answers a single question. Would enough people enlist? Nation states with far stronger identities have problems recruiting so why wouldn't the EU?

[@firstlast7052]

The state monopoly on violence, in political science and sociology, is the concept that the state alone has the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. It is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of the modern state. This is often expressed in the oath that members of a state's armed forces take. For example an American soldier take the US Oath of Alliance and swears to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". Would a European Army be deployed within the territory of a EU member state. If so who would decide on deployment? It is quite possible to see why this is thorny issue. (1) It could be deployed to force recalcitrant governments (hello Poland and Hungry) to behave themselves. (2) Be requested to help put down an insurgency by a recognised government and become involved in a protracted civil war. Both sides of this coin might make many EU member states leery of such a commitment .

[@slavianalbanovich9025]

No nation in particular would control the army, a specially constituted European body would do it. It would be like asking which US state controls the military.

[@martinreitter36]

To answer your questions: Who will fund it? Germany. Who will run it? France. Who will control it? Brussels.

[@timschabla4377]

Yeah - To reason one - We have seen how clever it is to trust in other contrys using politics fpr defence... Every contry has to be able to defend itself. Same u cant project to continents or even planets in an interstellar theory^^

[@Blabla-od7vt]

Well, just expand the EU-battlegroup. A united geopoelitical strategy should not be hard to find, issues like immigration affect all of the member states.

[@lukeporras1288]

Europeans have such a strange concept of what federalism and federation is. A federation is the same as a confederation, and the EU is already a confederation in all but name. Some confederations are more integrated than others, but in order to be a true federation, they must all operate on the same premise: a voluntary league of sovereign states.

[@jonybe5854]

EU always had an army so it's strange title.

[@thelastprussian6491]

question is: will the nations give away their military control to the EU? Thats a massive centralizing move for the eu. But with the greater danger of russia the chanches rise. so mayby

[@augustiner3821]

who put Germany in the "Gaullist" group?

[@dongiovanni1248]

1:25 Why would you count Germany as 'Gaullist'? Isn't Germany in opposition to France always supporting the trans-atlantic partnership?

[@fyrenoftelios767]

I think there's been a change (at least in words) under Merkel, who supported the idea of a European army. In any case Germany is much less Atlantic than Poland or the Baltics for example

[@fyrenoftelios767]

I think there's been a change (at least in words) under Merkel, who supported the idea of a European army. In any case Germany is much less Atlantic than Poland or the Baltics for example

[@jewtubehatestruth7341]

All European brothers should fight together in one army under the command of the EU Commission, just like back in the days of Pope Urban II. Greetings from Germany

[@user-gd1yg6le1h]

It will come plus expensive military hard wear.

[@CoffeePengu]

It is not emberassing to not having the need to deploy EU battlegroups!

[@walrustrent2001]

A common army can only be created within a politically unified Europe. That is with a common government that Europe's peoples could trust not to use the army to enforce unpopular decisions. I think EU is currently the worst possible candidate to wield miltary power, both in its lack of democratic legitimacy, and its absurd decision processes. In other terms, it would be inefficient in protecting Europe from outside threats while endangering democracy.

[@emrekubalas6724]

It's quite imporant to mention Türkiye when discussing European defense. Türkiye has the second-biggest army in NATO and has contributed to nearly all EU-led operations. What is more, Türkiye's past 10 years is made it an experienced country in times of war and conflict. So, in my opinion, an option to build a European army means EU countries are leaving NATO which means leaving Türkiye's assistance and strength. They will have to spend a significant amount of their GDP on the military. I'm not thinking like this just because I'm from Türkiye but bruh our neighbors are Iran, Iraq, and Syria. I wish France and Spain are our border neighbors... Army and security is literally the most important thing that Türkiye provides and a European army is going to dismiss that.

[@nullx7]

USA is more important for us

[@michaeldobson107]

Great video. Just subscribed. Bit of advice, though. The "whipping" sound effects really takes away from what you are saying. Just a thought. The problem, as I see it, with BOTH the EU and NATO is the whole "everyone has to agree" and "every country can veto anything" approach. That makes them literally useless, as one country will inevitably "veto" every idea that comes up if they see an opening to gain "concessions" for their vote (i.e. Turkey being the latest.) It should be a majority vote, something like the 2/3 majority vote in the US Congress.

[@EUMadeSimple]

Great feedback thank you :) I have already used a lot less of the whipping sound effect in my newer videos. As for your thoughts - I completely agree .. we need to consider changing the VETO vote. And the EU parliament has also said this very recently... The council of the European Union needs to use qualified majority voting for foreign policy legislation... Sadly this will require EU treaty change though which could take decades. My latest video is on that :) Thanks for subscribing. Happy to have you onboard

[@markaberer]

Whoosh...

[@canemcave]

controlled by every country on rotation, just like anything else in the EU with the outgoing country passing over operational control over to the incoming country

[@willjankuvic9387]

EU Army could be started by France and Germany. Both are EU members and France is a nuclear power( UK is out, but still a partner via NATO ). This result to a commanding leadership of an "EU Army" by a French General only. But France has definately a political problem because of right nationalists parties. It is very risky if a right nationalistic (and Russia friendly) new elected French President would rule over the military EU Army commander. A nightmare.

[@WinkelmanSM-3]

Are you dutch?

[@frozzerzsfreeze8950]

The problems of an Europeen army are the must of countries not meet the 2% GDP defence spend (expect France). An Europeen army can just be a plan to europeen defense, with airdefense, europeen strategic base, good aircraft,... And an collobaration outside the europe. So they can have a real defense with a plan, and the power of assault in collaboration. But this unrealistic today, cause no one of this europeen country have an army expect France. Go buy american stuff, they will just let you be invade like in ukraine unless build a real and strong europeen army.

[@LarsPW]

An EU-Army consisting just of the traditional military forces simply thrown together would be useless. The most important and political relatively simple achievable objective should be compatibility. As far as I know this had been achieved already by hte NATO as far as conventional amunition is concerned. But it should be as well established in communiation technologies between staff as well as between weapon systems. E.g. a french Cesar-Radar should be able to feed german howitzes with target coordinates and vice versa, so that german radar devices could deliver targets for Cesar weapons quickly. Far more difficult to achieve is more spare part compatibility because it limits the construction of vehicles of all kinds. There are serious issues with competition on the defense market and intellectual property issues as well.

[@theghostofprussia2438]

It would be like Austria-hungary

[@user-iz3dq5sz3h]

There is only one reason for wanting an eu army and that is to do the one job a NATO army cannot and will not do. That one job is to put down pro democracy uprisings in eu member states. No one is mentioning eu navy or airforce so it is obvious it is only going to operate within eu existing borders. Also, the french are keen as they are the most capable eu force ( the tallest dwarf) in the eu so everyone else pays for france to look important. Another big problem is no other eu member state will trust france on defence. Lastly, I cannot think of anything more humiliating for a soldier than knowing if I die fighting for an eu cause my coffin will be draped in an eu flag. I would imagine many would just willingly surrender than have that humiliation.

[@davecarmody83]

As someone from Ireland, Its kinda shitty you left us out of your European maps!

[@EUMadeSimple]

I'm sorry. You are there at the start but I must have accidentally removed it. I'll be sure to pay closer attention next video

[@davecarmody83]

@@EUMadeSimple thanks loved the video apart from that.

[@LegionSoft]

There are many "small" things to fixed Frist. Russo Ukrainian conflict shown Europe can't scalle up amo production as standardisation us not done. 2. You haven't shown plane Euro fighter, why France dropped out Rafale. 3. European Tank Project, Germany is not willing to share technology. Poland had to go Koreans instead of cooperation. In summary If Europe want to competit with Russian Federation at scale/ quantity Europe needs standardized weapons planes tanks with factories all around Europe not only in France or Germany. Focus on Economy and the Business as in roots of EU not on ideology and bureaucracy. Political boundaries faild this why economic ware created.

[@blacksiskin8018]

if europe gets realy united and not first and second gear countries the fear that would spread is more egnough than the euroarmy

[@FF2W]

Please stop the sound effects - way too much and getting annoying beside that - great content

[@EUMadeSimple]

I have already cut down on them drastically in my newer videos XD thanks for the feedback

[@louaceveu1925]

The European nations have done very well with technological adventures. The army is going to be the next step because Europe can't rely on a third party to defend herself.

[@SantaFe19484]

OK, it sounds like you are contradicting with two videos making opposite predictions.

[@elvishanuschke5985]

Der kanal und die Beiträge sind zuuuuu lecker haha

[@robert9016]

Denmark is a part of NATO btw

[@francescot5012]

Dankon pro la filmeto. Mi subtenas la kreadon de komuna armeo de la EU. 🇪🇺

[@lucmeyer2733]

Benelux Army ?

[@mjensen6776]

thank you for Danish employees, we work until they turn 70th,, into eu army clown world Klaus Schwab. ps I have Putin's money now.

[@marcothebarber764]

Full EU or western European Army

[@friedrichruff5357]

The EU Army allready exists.

[@Hession0Drasha]

Why give the americans so much money for weapons, we are more than capable of making equivalents ourselves, inside european factories.

[@edisondinaric4374]

the 3rd reason is the same goes for nato

[@glenwillson5073]

There will be an EU army. God says of the EU, "who can make war with him".

[@torabe8172]

if we want EU army, EU army should protect interest of all EU member, e.g Germany don't give a f. about Ukraine but for Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Slovakia is key to exist. We need US as long as we can't rely on EU state in defence. EU lost my trust in this.

[@Pragmatic_Optimist_MCR]

The European member states should integrate further as a federation in order to build and deploy an European army efficiently. We already are partially a federation, why not make the European institutions more democratic and efficient by writing a constitution and overcoming unanimity, which prevents many visionary projects and keeps 27 copies of the same political bodies running simultaneously. The EU should not identify itself as many small nations, but rather regions that belong to a federal state, in order to be independent and competetive geostrategically compared to the US, China, Russia or (in the coming decades) India

[@professionalgambling6783]

country's little business... as always, and who will give up some of their decision makeing in order to have some abstract global power, that an average man doesn't ever think about, so they don't think about china for example becoming more and more problematic, untill we will have some war in the eu, like russia getting insane and blowin berlin up with a nuke, or even conventional weapons, i don't see this idea of united army becoming real, let alone becoming it a federation which is close to one country, maybe in the next 100 years when the mentaliti will change, but not anytime soon.

[@gryn1s]

larger and more centralised governments rarely get more effective. Usually its the opposite. Small and homogenous countries are in general more innovative, have more trust, and provide better quality of life. Its just how human nature works. EU is perfectly good as a trade block it is.

[@jameswright4236]

Any EU army would still need to be backed by a major superpower like the US anyway in terms of technology. The UK and France both have the new F-35 as the primary strike fighter on-board its carriers, and the US' overall defence spending is more than three times than most NATO countries put together. If there ever was a major military crisis within NATO or EU borders, you'd see more American M1 Abrams or Mastiffs than you would say Leopard II or Foxhounds respectively.

[@rolyflorian]

France don't have any F-35 nor is planning to buy any. France use Rafale as main fighter for both Navy and Air Force.

[@angeleyes564]

Nato est 1949 EU est 1995

[@Iamdoepi]

Well talks are happening right now so this is outdated.

[@iam5085]

One reason it could: Trump

[@gayleralan]

Many of the powers that be do not want Europe to have a unified army. If the EU became a federation and our militarys became one it would be a force nobody could challenge

[@josephmwilambwe]

You don't know the bible. It says that Europe will be a powerful continent with it own army. !! And I pray God you will be alive when that will happen. It seems not today but be sure it will come.

[@thodan467]

im the long run it will be happen in 50 - 100 years

[@walrustrent2001]

A European defensive alliance in replacement of NATO would be of tremendous benefits. First, without american warmongerers, Russia would not feel as threatened and a global pan-european peace could be established. Second, it would allow Europe to trade both with Russia and across the Atlantic. Europe today is dominated by the US trough NATO ad the EU. Look where it has led us.