The goal of this so-called “Military Schengen” is to drastically improve military mobility throughout the Union, reports Euronews.
“Today, in order to move military equipment and troops, say, from the west to the east, unfortunately, it takes months,” said Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism. “What we want to achieve is that it happens within a few days.”
“You can’t defend a continent if you can’t move on it,” he said at a press conference. “It’s very clear, that’s why we’re creating this military Schengen.”
The military mobility package, which will be officially unveiled today, is the latest in a series of plans by the Commission to strengthen EU defense by the end of the decade. That deadline is mentioned because some intelligence agencies believe that Russia could have the capacity to attack another European country by then.
One of the key measures will be to accelerate the issuance of permits for cross-border military mobility. Currently, the rules in 27 member states are not harmonized, and some take weeks to respond to a request from another EU country. The commission wants to shorten it to a maximum of three days in peacetime and only six hours in crisis situations, whereby approval would be implied in the latter case.
The plan envisages a new European system for military mobility, modeled on the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which enables rapid assistance in the event of disasters. It will include a “military mobility solidarity fund”, through which members will be able to make assets such as freight trains or ferries available, as well as a “military mobility catalogue” listing dual-use assets from the civilian sector that can be used for military operations.
All activities will be coordinated by a new working group composed of national coordinators from each member state. Their task will also be to prioritize funding for 500 selected infrastructure projects key to improving the four agreed military corridors, the locations of which remain secret. The goal is to upgrade roads, railways, ports, airports, tunnels and bridges so that they can withstand the weight and size of military equipment.
“Strong logistics networks make the difference between winning and losing wars,” Tzitzikostas stressed, adding that “the focus is on short-term, quick-win investments to quickly increase capacity.”
Tzitzikostas estimates that 100 billion euros will be needed for this work. However, the EU has so far allocated only €1.7 billion for military mobility in the current multi-annual budget that ends in 2027, an amount which the commissioner described as “a drop in the ocean”.
The proposal for the next seven-year budget from 2028 is just under €18 billion – a tenfold increase, but still far from the target. However, Tzitzikostas clarified that this is not the only source of funding. Given that the infrastructure is dual-purpose, member states will be able to use cohesion funds, as well as money from the SAFE defense loan program. Those investments will also be included in the new spending target of the NATO alliance.
“It’s not just about money. This package is also about the framework,” Tzitzikostas pointed out. “The geopolitical situation in the world is not easy now, so we have to learn to move faster, we have to learn to work harder and we have to learn to achieve results much sooner than expected,” he concluded.
(Vijesti.ba)
