“Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint,” she wrote.
Her comments were echoed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, with Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera adding that “we need a rules-based world.”
France went a step further with its foreign minister condemning the American operation on social media. According to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Maduro “gravely violated” the rights of Venezuelans, but the military operation that led to him being grabbed “contravenes the principle of non-use of force, which underpins international law.”
EU Battle Groups existed up until 2021, now there is the EU Rapid Deployment Capacity — it has 5000 personnel on paper. First proposal in 1999 was 50k. Frontex is formally just a border patrol, but it has become more and more militaristic in the recent years. Take these two a make them the core of an European Army. But most importantly put them under political control from Brussels! They need to be accountable to the European Parliament.
All mayor EU armies operate with NATO standards. We have the so called Framework Nation Concept where smaller nations already operate under a „framework nation“ that has logistics and other infrastructure capabilities (e.g. NL uses DE tanks). These principles of „pooling and sharing“ should be adopted with the European core army as well.
Other examples of integration are: The German-Netherlands Corp, The UK Joint Expeditionary Force, The Nordic Defence Cooperation, Joint defense R&D, and common defense procurements.