Poland proposes creation of NATO-controlled EU army
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Brussels, Nov 6, IRNA
EU-Army-Poland
Poland has proposed creation of a 100,000- strong European Union army tied to the North Atlantic Treaty Organistion (NATO) for use in global trouble spots or for European defence, the country's President Lech Kaczynski said in an interview published Monday.
"At the moment, we have the situation where the EU needs about 8,000 troops in Lebanon and there is a problem where to find them," Kaczynski told the European daily Financial Times.
The Polish leader said he hoped to raise the issue with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the course of his two-day visit to the UK, which begins today.
Poland's proposals could build upon the existing European Rapid Reaction Force, created in 2004, which has been deployed in the former Yugoslavia but not outside Europe, noted the newspaper.
However, German officials were particularly concerned about the question of whether an EU force could operate within NATO, which raised issues over whether it would be under European or US control.
Referring to Russia, Kaczynski acknowledged that Moscow did not pose an immediate military threat, but said he was worried about the dependence on Russian energy and foreign investments by state-owned Russian companies as well as Moscow's "continuing powerful military." He criticized Germany over the planned German-Russian natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea which, he said, would skirt Poland and potentially give Moscow more leverage over Warsaw in future energy disputes.
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