Germany's Defense Ministry has confirmed a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel that it is open to proposals due to be unveiled by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to create a European Union naval fleet. Sarkozy will likely outline his plan after France assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1.
"There is already a Franco-British initiative for a fleet, and Germany could play a part in this," the Defence Ministry spokesman said, according to a Reuters report. "But everything would need to be checked first. We'll have to wait and see what sort of proposals the French presidency unveils."
The fleet would sail under an EU flag, and might encompass other nations from the bloc, the spokesman said. But it was too early to speculate on any concrete details, he added.
Kewl! I was ten years too early when I was talking about this on sci.military.naval. Admittedly, that was for a goofy game, but...
OTOH, this makes sense. None of the individual economies of Europe can really afford a navy on the scale of the USN or the up and coming PLAN. Supercarriers are just plain expensive. When you roll together their battle groups - the ships needed to protect them - it becomes mildly insane. SSNs are definitely not cheap either.
The mechanics of how the EUN would function - dedicated ships? Or just reflagged as needed? Or...? - remains to be seen. Sarkozy's unveiling of the idea ought to be interesting to watch. Will the air forces and armies follow the naval integration path? I wouldn't have thought so based on what Sarkozy had just said about reforming the French Army, but...I could be very, very wrong.
Sadly, I have a feeling that the Irish vote may have derailed this initiative.
ReplyDeleteWhich is really a shame.