Would a strong EU Common Security and Defence Policy be good?

[Flanders]

If the EU were to work better as unit on foreign policy, and use the Common Security and Defence Policy to promote it's interests and help resolve any conflicts, maybe even replacing NATO in some areas, would this help Europe, NATO and the European neighbourhood (middle east, north Africa, central Africa, Transcaucasia)?

There has been increasing calls from member states NATO partners (the US) for Europe to take a lead on the world stage and the EU already plays a security/state building role in Kosovo, among other places.

The recent agreement between the UK and France, and the mission in Libya may show this is a direction the EU are moving in.

Will we ever see full defence integration among the EU members and would Russia or China see this as a threat?

Would this make Europe a superpower?

 

[Beatmaster]

If the EU were to work better as unit on foreign policy, and use the Common Security and Defence Policy to promote it's interests and help resolve any conflicts, maybe even replacing NATO in some areas, would this help Europe, NATO and the European neighbourhood (middle east, north Africa, central Africa, Transcaucasia)?

There has been increasing calls from member states NATO partners (the US) for Europe to take a lead on the world stage and the EU already plays a security/state building role in Kosovo, among other places.

The recent agreement between the UK and France, and the mission in Libya may show this is a direction the EU are moving in.

Will we ever see full defence integration among the EU members and would Russia or China see this as a threat?

Would this make Europe a superpower?

In regards of the EU will be seen as a superpower i dunno, however with key members like: France, Germany, UK and several other key members like: Italy, Spain, Greece and the Netherlands it should or could be considered as a superpower but this is if they act as one, keep in mind its the EU however it still consists of many "single" nations.
So superpower no but as "body" yes

Today you already see that EU members have extremely close ties with eachother in terms of defense and security.
The thing is that some members do not want to go all the way in terms of effort to make a full defense integration a fact.
But eventually i personally believe that the EU will achieve a fully functioning system similar to it.
The EU has already a Rapid response force and various nations have similar agreements going on a smaller scale.
The 3 major powers within the EU (UK, FR, GER) still have a very long way to go to get the rest of the EU ready to commit to a EU wide agreement with a full defense integration in mind.

 

[Methos]

For having unified secruity policy/armed forces the countries would have to abandon some of their sovereignty. It seems unlikely that this is going to happen soon. Which advantages would it bring to have one large defence ministerium lead by EU than one for each country? Which advantages would it bring to have one large integrated army instead of multiple smalls? Well, it could save money, but that's it.
Some EU countries like German have constiutions which prevent active wars unless they are attacked or it is a peacekeeping mission wanted by some of the larger supernational institutions.
Some EU countries recognize states which other do not (e.g. Spain did not recognize Kosovo as own state yet).

The political power of the EU is currently very low. The parlaiment and council mainly care for cuccumbers (EG 1677/88) and bananas, but even if they liked to make some real politics, they couldn't because not all countries want to have the EU for more than business (among others the UK does not want).

 

[Pacrat]

For having unified secruity policy/armed forces the countries would have to abandon some of their sovereignty. .

There lies the problem. Even though they are united in a currency, there are consistent internal pressures and loyalties that will keep them from them from fully unifying into a strong military and command structure. Germany and France may develop weapons jointly, but both services have a mutual mistrust that has lasted since the time of Nepoleon, and will lead to tensions on who will lead and who would contribute what to the force as well as which weapons would be employed and tactics used. England, I'm not too sure of, but they will probably keep their 'aloofness' from continental affairs, trying to keep from contributing too much and getting further intangled. Eastern Europe would want guarantees against Russian political and economic pressures, which Germany and France would be reluctant to give.

Sorry if I'm being long winded for a noob :lam , but looking at events since the Yugoslavia breakup through to the missile shield that was to be based in Poland, Europe seems to be placing its hope in being a economic and political superpower, not a military one. There has been talk about a united European force, (which if I remember there is a hollow force) but there is almost always a beak down based more on nationalistic views then practical matters