Outgoing Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren has called on the European Commission to take a new step toward an EU army by creating the office of an EU Commissioner of Defence.
Ollongren told Dutch media, “I think it would be a good idea for the next European Commission to put this very high on the agenda, for there to be a European commissioner who spends 100% of his or her time [on defence] alone,” Euractiv reports.
“This Commission has already taken this up, but in the defence industry in particular, this is still quite fragmented. A lot is approached from a national interest perspective,” she said.
According to Ollongren, the role of a defence commissioner would be to promote military cooperation among European Union member states as well as look to increase the production of weaponry and ammunition.
The European Union and its individual member states have committed large amounts of arms and ammunition to Ukraine as it continues its war with Russian armed forces but many have noted that the bloc is unable to provide the amount of ammunition, particularly artillery rounds, that Ukraine has requested.
A Bloomberg report from Friday, November 10th, has claimed that the EU will be unable to meet the 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition promised to Ukraine by March of 2024, citing a briefing by the European External Action Service.
So far, the EU has delivered just 30% of the ammunition promised to the Ukrainian armed forces as around half of the period of deliveries has already passed.
EU member states allegedly noted earlier this week that Russia’s ally North Korea had alone supplied the country with over half a million rounds of artillery.
Minister Ollongren called for more production within the EU saying, “I say: just go produce, we will take it. Our budgets have been increased, and they remain high. Support for Ukraine is not decreasing for the time being. We really need it.”
While the creation of a Commissioner for Defence would not be the same as the creation of an EU army, the concept has been proposed in various forms over the last several years.
French President Emmanuel Macron advocated for a “true European army” in 2018, claiming that Europeans would not be able to rely on the United States for military protection.
“I want to build a real security dialogue with Russia, which is a country I respect, a European country – but we must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own without relying only on the United States,” President Macron said.
However, President Macron’s views appear to have changed, according to a statement from Czech President Petr Pavel, who stated earlier this year that the French leader was less keen on the idea of an EU army.
“European defence—I spoke about this in Munich with President Macron—is not about declaring that we have a European army or EU army,” Pavel said in March of this year.
“There has already been a big shift by President Macron—from the European army, he was talking about years ago, against the backdrop of NATO’s brain-deadness, to now saying we need to build European defence based on the European pillar of NATO, which I applaud. It is a reasonable shift,” the Czech leader added.
Despite this, many countries are ramping up their military spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most notably Germany, which has committed to expanding its armed forces and upgrading the Bundeswehr.
“Today, nobody can seriously doubt what we in Germany have been avoiding for a long time, namely that we need a powerful Bundeswehr,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this week.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated, “Only a Bundeswehr that is so strong … can ultimately prevent the worst from happening,” and added, “We need a Bundeswehr that can defend itself and wage war in order to defend our security and our freedom.”
