Italy calls for European army, after EU treaty passed

(LONDON) - Italy's foreign minister called for the creation of a European Union army following ratification of a landmark EU reform treaty, in a newspaper interview out Monday.

Speaking ahead of an EU summit this week, Franco Frattini said the Lisbon Treaty establishes "that if some countries want to enter into reinforced co-operation between themselves they can do so."

"Every country duplicates its forces, each of us puts armoured cars, men, tanks, planes, into Afghanistan," he told Britain's Times newspaper, saying there was a "necessary objective to have a European army."

"If there were a European army, Italy could send planes, France could send tanks, Britain could send armoured cars, and in this way we would optimise the use of our resources.

"Perhaps we won't get there immediately, but that is the idea of a European army".

EU leaders are to meet in Brussels on Thursday for a summit expected to name a full-time president for the 27-bloc as well as a new foreign affairs chief, posts created under the Lisbon Treaty.

Rome is backing its former Italian prime minister Massimo D'Alema for the newly-created EU foreign policy supremo job, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Frattini, a former EU justice commissioner, said Europe needs to seize the opportunity to punch its weight on the world stage.

"If we do not find a common foreign policy, there is the risk that Europe will become irrelevant... We will be bypassed by the G2 of America and China, which is to say the Pacific axis, and the Atlantic axis will be forgotten.

"We need political will and commitment, otherwise the people of Europe will be disillusioned and disappointed. People expect a great deal of us. After Lisbon we have no more alibis," he said.

The EU has long sought to strengthen military cooperation, under its European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), while balancing the defence obligations and interests of EU states who are also members of NATO.

The bloc currently has around a dozen civilian and military missions abroad, ranging from police training in Afghanistan to conflict monitoring in Georgia and border management in the Palestinian territories.

The Lisbon treaty, which started life as an EU constitution and has been delayed for years, is finally set to come into force on December 1 after the Czech president ratified it earlier this month.