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Tracking the Emerging Beast Power
Sarkozy plots defence force with
big EU states
FOCUS News Agency
Paris, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to create an elite
defence group of the EU’s six biggest member states once the Lisbon
treaty comes into force next year, European Voice informed.
The alliance of France, the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland would
pledge a minimum level of defence spending and promise to improve their
military capabilities as well as work together on military co-operation
projects including common defence equipment procurement and forming a
60,000- strong intervention force. They could also co-operate on
military infrastructure projects including intelligence-gathering
satellites and missile defence.
| Paris, France’s President
Nicolas Sarkozy plans to create an elite defence group of the
EU’s six biggest member states once the Lisbon treaty comes into
force next year. |
The plan is to launch the group next year once the Lisbon treaty has
been ratified, using a provision for “permanent structured co-operation”
in defence, which was originally agreed in 2004 as part of the EU
constitution. Although the constitution was later rejected by referenda
in the Netherlands and France, the clause that made this form of
co-operation possible was kept in the Lisbon treaty.
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