DW – October 21, 2021
Germany and four members of the European Union have launched an initiative to establish a bloc-wide rapid reaction force for future military crises, the German news agency dpa reported on Thursday.
The initiative, which also draws in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia, aims to expand the existing EU battle groups, which are multinational military units of 1,500 personnel each on standby to respond to crises.
The new force is expected to include space and cyber capabilities, along with special forces and air transport.
The five countries said recent events in Afghanistan have shown that the EU must be able to act swiftly, according to a document cited by dpa.
To this end, the availability, readiness, deployability and competence of the forces had to be improved, the document added.
In order to provide greater flexibility, the five states also proposed using Article 44 of the EU Treaty, which has never been activated before.
The article allows coalitions of willing member states to carry out security activities with the permission of other non-participating countries.
The plan also calls on EU member states to utilize more regional cooperation arrangements. It does not, however, make any specific proposals on the size of the force in terms of personnel.