Spain has renewed calls for the European Union to create a joint military force, arguing that growing geopolitical tensions, including the recent dispute over Greenland, show the bloc needs to move faster on defence integration. Speaking to Reuters ahead of meetings in Davos, Spain's foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said Europe must demonstrate it can defend itself collectively, both militarily and economically.
Albares said the EU should start by fully integrating its defence industry and then assemble a "coalition of the willing" among member states. A joint force, he argued, would be far more efficient than maintaining 27 separate national armies. While he acknowledged concerns about whether European citizens would support deeper military integration, he said the chances of mobilising meaningful deterrence were higher at EU level than country by country.
Albares stressed that a European army would not replace NATO, underlining Spain's commitment to the transatlantic alliance. But he said Europe must show it will not allow itself to be pressured. "We need to demonstrate that Europe is not a place that can be coerced," he said, adding that recent events had only strengthened the case for greater European autonomy in defence.
The idea of a joint European army is not new. First proposed in 1951 to counter the Soviet Union, it collapsed three years later when France's parliament rejected it. More than seven decades on, Albares said, the unfinished project has returned to the forefront. "European defence was part of the origin of the EU," he said. "It is up to my generation to finish this task."