German Europe

European Rhetoric

German insistence on the voting procedures in the suggested EU constitution is causing growing unease in Warsaw. "The impression" is arising that Berlin "behind its European rhetoric" is merely concealing "its own national interest". Thus Piotr Buras defines the moves to double the weighted vote of Germany in the EU Council of Ministers.[1] "The German presidency of the Council is devoting most of its energy to increasing Germany's power in the EU" said Mariusz Muszynski, representing Poland's government. "Regardless of budget deficits not penalised for the fourth time and their original failure to comply with EU Directives on the internal market and so on, they are showing only how hard they fight for their own interests".[2] There is annoyance in Warsaw that the German media are complicit in dressing up the naked self interest of German policy in European clothes. Marek Cichoki, the responsible Polish negotiator for the constitutional treaty, called the German press "highly disciplined" as he described the subjection of the German print media to government policy.[3]

National Interests

Think tanks specialising in foreign policy have given us a glimpse into Berlin's power play. The Centre for Applied Political Research (CAP), a close co-operator with the Bertelsmann Foundation, has calculated that the German voting weight would exceed that of Poland by 116% under the proposals of the suggested EU constitution. Whereas, according to Poland's suggested model based on the square root of the population "Germany's share (...) would only be 47% larger than Poland's". It is more important for the Centre for Applied Political Research that the alterations demanded by Poland would make it more difficult "to form a blocking minority coalition and to obstruct decisions".[4] Using the suggested model in the constitution, Germany and France could obstruct every decision, if they just succeeded in getting either Italy or Spain on their side. "With the square root model, they would have to get five or six of the larger states on side" - thus wrote the CAP over Warsaw's demands for reducing the power of veto held by Germany and France.

EU Army

Whatever the consequences of the agenda items at today's summit concerning abstract methods of weighting votes and requirements for quorate votes, is excluded from a paper published by several high ranking Social Democrat MPs, including three members of the leadership of the parliamentary party. The document is published in English and has been less circulated in Germany than in Western military circles. It includes a "road map for the further development of the military dimension of European Security and Defence Policy" and demands "the creation of a European army" [5] The authors rely for their argument on several passages of the proposed constitution, which Germany will stick to at any cost.

Road Map

The Social Democrat MPs maintain that further co-operation in Security and Defence Policy has been developed "step by step" during previous years "even if our efforts have been darkened by talk of crisis and widespread Euroscepticism".[6] The authors cite the EU's interventions in South East Europe (Bosnia and Macedonia) and Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo [7] as particularly important elements for European Security Strategy [8] - as well as the formation of Battle Groups [9]. The paper then sketches the next steps to be achieved in the coming years. European military transport should be unified into a newly-created "European Air Transport Command" to replace national transport capacities - "In all its functions, inclusive of education and training, upkeep and maintenance". They also recommend the creation of a European military academy, a Baltic fleet headquarters and an independent "Council for a minister of military affairs". It is asserted that the smaller EU states should no longer maintain any comprehensive defence and must use "their limited resources to specialise in niche capabilities".

War and Peace

The Social Democrat MPs, amongst them the spokesman on defence for the parliamentary party, finally demand the centralisation of all decision-making and leadership functions at the EU level. An EU "Defence Representative" should lead all EU military structures. It is "also necessary to agree the procedures for deciding on war and peace (jus belli et pacis)". For this purpose "the transfer of sovereignty by the EU states and of decision-making authority on a democratically legitimate European level must be discussed". So say the Social Democrat MPs.[10]

Nuclear Strike Forces

The paper, published by the London office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, finally gets to grips with plans which have long been considered in background papers by German think tanks. They touch on the power of ordering the use of the most deadly weapons existing at this time, which can extinguish all life. According to the Social Democrat MPs, German-dominated Europe should have its grasp on nuclear weapons. As it says in the paper "The role of the nuclear strike forces of France and Great Britain in an integrated European army should be discussed".[11]

Please read excerpts from the paper of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

[1] Mit der Quadratwurzel gegen das deutsche Europa; Spiegel Online 17.06.2007
[2] "Wir sind doch keine Idioten"; Spiegel Online 18.06.2007
[3] Cichocki: Nie dopuściliśmy do wyizolowania Polski w dyskusjach; serwisy.gazeta.pl/tokfm/1,73365,4235205.html
[4] Konsequenzen der Quadratwurzel; Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung 18.06.2007
[5], [6] On the Way towards a European Army; Friedrich Ebert Foundation June 2007
[7] see also Testlauf für europäische Militärmacht, EU-Military Operation in the Congo and Ergänzungsraum
[8] see also Präventivkriege als neue EU-Strategie?, EU Strategy: "Preemptive Wars", worldwide, Plans for action and Nuclear War
[9] see also Grenzenloser Krieg, Unheimlicher Anschluss and Urban Warfare
[10], [11] On the Way towards a European Army; Friedrich Ebert Foundation June 2007