European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said a common European army would be a timely deterrent against further Russian aggression on the continent.
Mr Juncker insisted there will “never” be a Greek exit from the euro zone but demanded that further financial assistance for Athens should be more political than technocratic.
Mr Juncker said pooling military capability would demonstrate EU member states’s determination never to go to war against each other. But the true value of such an institution, he said, lay in the situation further east.
"A common army of Europeans would give Russia the clear impression that we are serious with the defence of European values," he told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "Before I thought that one no longer had to justify Europe but I have understood that there is a necessity for this. Europe has lost enormously in reputation, in foreign policy one doesn't take us too seriously."
Mr Juncker’s remarks are a welcome intervention for German defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. Since taking office 18 months ago, Ms von der Leyen has been working to modernise the German military and has always emphasised her hope for a European component to her efforts.
Last month Ms von der Leyen said she was confident that "perhaps not my children but my grandchildren will have a United States of Europe" with its own military.
The commission president's remarks were given a strong welcome in Berlin's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Its Bundestag foreign policy head Norbert Rottgen said an EU army "is a European vision whose time has come".
On Monday in Brussels, former Nato chief and EU foreign policy head Javier Solana will present calling for a new European security strategy – including military capability – for intervention beyond EU borders.
With an eye on the concerns of non-Nato countries such as Ireland, Mr Juncker noted there was "enough that divides us" on the controversial issue of a common European defence force.
The difficulties such a move hold were clear by the failure to date of EU member states to agree on a fully-fledged foreign minister, noting that “no national foreign minister simply leaves the field”.
On the challenges of forming a common EU army, Mr Juncker drew a parallel to another of his long-term proposals: a euro zone budget overseen by a single euro zone finance minister, which he admitted would require “massive” treaty change.
“For that, member states would have to be ready to sacrifice sovereignty,” he said, leaving open whether he saw an appetite in national capitals for such a step.
On Greece, Mr Juncker declined to say whether he saw a third EU-IMF programme for the country on the horizon but said his commission would never support an Athens exit.
"A Greek exit would cause irreparable reputational damage for the entire European Union in the world," he said. "As long as the current second aid programme for Greece is running we cannot change anything in the so-called troika – which is no longer called that – [I mean] the representatives of Athens's European institutions and international creditors."
On Monday, euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels to hear details of reforms proposed by Greece to allow a four-month extension of its current EU-IMF programme. Later in the week, Mr Juncker is expected to receive the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
Close contact between the two men in recent weeks has attracted considerable attention around the continent, in particular media reports that Mr Juncker was unofficially advising the Greek leader on how to deal with other EU capitals.
Mr Juncker told the Welt am Sonntag that any further assistance measures for Greece should not be any less stringent than what went before.
“But they have to become more political,” he said. “It is not acceptable that a prime minister has to negotiate with civil servants over reforms. One is elected, the others aren’t.”
On euro zone fiscal policy, Mr Juncker defended a two-year extension for France to bring its budget deficit in line with EU rules, though he admitted his "difficulties" with the step.
Meanwhile the Lux Leaks scandal, which revealed generous breaks to multinational concerns in his native Luxembourg, had "not strengthened my position", the former prime minister conceded.
On his big ticket item, a €315 billion investment programme to stimulate member state economies, Mr Juncker said he was optimistic of widespread support.
His determination to progress the project was clear, he said, by his decision to hand control from his executive to the European Investment Bank.
“Otherwise the commission would be open to blackmail,” he said, “with member state governments lobbying without end that we give preferential treatment to their projects.”
