<p>Despite repeated assurances by the &ldquo;Remain&rdquo; group during the Brexit referendum campaign, plans are moving ahead at full speed to establish what some consider an &ldquo;EU Army.&rdquo; ;Germany and France presented their plans for a common EU defense strategy this Tuesday, to be discussed further at a summit in December.  ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Now is the time for us to move ahead in terms of a European Defense Union,&rdquo; said German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. ;&ldquo;The initiative is designed for a strong Europe. This Europe also wants to have good relations with Britain in the future, especially in the area of defense&#8230; It&rsquo;s not about a European Army.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Proposals include establishing a central EU military HQ, increased spending on military operations, expanding peacekeeping abroad, jointly developing assets like drones and helicopters, and constructing stronger defenses against hackers.  ;</p>
<p>The UK is ;firmly against these plans, and Britain&rsquo;s Secretary of State for Defense, Sir Michael Fallon, argues that the creation of a European Defense Union would &ldquo;undermine&rdquo; NATO.</p>
<p>&ldquo;NATO wants adequate support and Britain sees some aspects of the EU&rsquo;s ambitions that are useful, say on terrorism and cyber security,&rdquo; said MEP and former Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet. ;According to Paet, diplomacy in Bratislava will be centered on convincing London that a stronger EU defense is in NATO&rsquo;s interest. ;</p>
<p>EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is chairing the talks, says that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg&rsquo;s presence means that the EU and NATO are working together. ;&ldquo;It has been conveyed very clearly that this is not about establishing anything which is duplicating the efforts of NATO, but which is in complementarity to NATO,&rdquo; said Stoltenberg.  ;</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Fallon remains firmly against the formation of a common EU defense, and Britain retains full voting rights until it ;completes the process of leaving the EU (which will occur in 2019 at the earliest). ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;There are member states who would like to see&hellip;a single set of forces. That looks and sounds to me like a European Army, and we would oppose that,&rdquo; said Fallon. &ldquo;Europe is littered with HQs, what we don&rsquo;t need is another one.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>But the EU already has the framework &ndash; provided by the <em>Lisbon Treaty</em> &ndash; for the formation of two defense union organizations, and EU bureaucrats aim for these institutions to be up and running by 2021. ;</p>
<p>The document, on which MEPs will soon vote, not only ensures that an EU Army will happen, but proves that the &ldquo;Remain&rdquo; campaign lied during the Brexit vote. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The thin edge of the wedge for integration will be defense research, with more projects taking shape once countries get used to initial forms of military cooperation,&rdquo; writes <em>Breitbart&rsquo;s</em> Mike Hookem.</p>
<p>But the plan is clear: the EU wants to station battle groups in Eastern Europe along the Russian border and establish a widespread system to allow EU troops to move throughout the EU &ldquo;when necessary.&rdquo;  ;</p>
<p><em>Sounds like an army to me. ;</em></p>
<p>While the EU&rsquo;s decision-making skills here aren&rsquo;t great, these military plans represent a big move on the worldwide political chessboard and could bolster the EU&rsquo;s ability to act &ndash; without the US &ndash; in response to challenges like Russia. ;</p>
<p>Britain has feared such plans for years, while France now spies an opportunity to show leadership without London getting in the way.</p>
<p>France and Britain are currently the largest military powers in the EU, and the EU will need post-Brexit Britain as a partner after it officially leaves the union. ;Britian, on the other hand, needs to be careful to mind its place as an outgoing member. ;</p>