2.9 KiB
Incident I00025: EU Army
- Summary: Traces back to 2016: Guardian “Is there a secret plan to create an EU army?” French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europeans cannot be protected without a "true, European army", as he marks the centenary of the World War One Armistice. On a visit to the former Western Front in Verdun, he said Russia had shown it could be a threat and Europe had to be able "to defend itself better alone". German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the idea of an intervention force in June, but said it would have to be part of "the structure of defence co-operation".
Verdict: “An EU army marching out to war under Brussels’ command is a fantasy shared by Eurosceptics and a small number of federalists. Europe will continue down the road of defence cooperation in a halting way, but an EU army is only for armchair generals.”
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incident type: incident
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Year started: 2018
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Countries: Russia , EU
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Found via: OII
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Date added: 2019-02-24
| Technique | Description given for this incident |
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DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW
Actor: Russia
Timeframe: November 6, 2018 - end of November 2018
Date: November 6, 2018
Presumed goals:
- Include - Leave campaigners have claimed that the UK would be forced into an ‘EU army’ under the rules allowing for these activities. https://fullfact.org/europe/hunt-eu-army/
- Baltic states are frightened by the single European army. The new European security system will be anti-American. To the leadership of the Baltic states, based on Russophobia, this doesn’t look good.
Method:
- “Limited” engagement & channels. In this case Reddit was key forum.
- Could not find examples of engagement from “usual suspects” ie: Russian embassy; military or broad mentions via RT & Sputnik
Counters:
Related incidents:
References:
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/27/is-there-a-secret-plan-to-create-an-eu-army
- https://medium.com/dfrlab/spread-it-on-reddit-3170a463e787
- https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/a-european-army-eminently-defensible-but-not-probable-for-a-long-time-to-come
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46108633
- https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-eu-army-to-complement-nato/
- https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/baltic-states-frightened-by-the-single-european-army/
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/25/brexiters-european-army-myths-franco-german
- https://fullfact.org/europe/hunt-eu-army/
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/27/is-there-a-secret-plan-to-create-an-eu-army
Datasets:
Notes: Worth noting the Breitbart commentary (see visual assets); compared to campaigns against NATO for instance, this incident didn’t seemingly have much traction/momentum, and seemed more of a potential wedge for the pro-Brexit audience.
Visual Assets