Bwahaha! European Union Meets to 'Rethink' Defense Policy Under Donald Trump Administration

The E.U. is the epitome of the unaccountable elite, and now these despicable hacks are hating life.

I love it.

At the link is Federica Mogherini, the Italian Marxist who's been pushing an Islamo-communist agenda since she came to power as an E.U. apparatchik.

Fuck 'em.

At WSJ, "EU Meets to Rethink Defense Options Under Trump Presidency":

BRUSSELS — European foreign and defense ministers met Monday to approve ways of expanding their security cooperation as pressure builds on Europe to increase its own military spending with the election of Donald Trump.

Expanding European defense cooperation has long been controversial, with a number of proposals in the past blocked by Britain, which preferred to work to strengthen security through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

But Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and now the election of Mr. Trump has given fresh impetus to the EU to come up with new plans for security cooperation. In his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has questioned the relevance of the NATO military alliance and suggested American military support could be conditional on European defense spending.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has said Europe must develop strategic autonomy, an ability to act independently of the U.S.

“We have a lot of potential that we don’t utilize yet,” Ms. Mogherini said Monday. “There is a need to strengthen our security profile.”

According to a draft statement, due to be published later Monday, foreign and defense ministers said they were committed to strengthening the EU’s ability to act as a security provider: “This will enhance its global strategic role and its capacity to act autonomously when and where necessary and with partners wherever possible.”

Still, forging consensus in the EU is difficult, and divisions remain in the bloc over how to increase defense spending or create new military capabilities.

Concerns by a number of countries over the need to avoid duplication with NATO have resulted in a watered-down proposal for a military headquarters. The EU is now proposing a strategic group that could plan and oversee training missions but not conduct peacekeeping or other military operations.

The new EU plan focuses on how to improve and speed up such military training missions, leaving so-called collective defense planning to NATO.

In the short term, the most meaningful step forward by the EU will likely not be a new initiative, but simply utilizing its standing battle groups. Nations contribute a battalion of forces for six-month periods so that the EU always has a crisis-response team ready, but the EU has never used the force.

However, Monday’s statement contains a number of other initiatives that could over time significantly enhance the bloc’s defense cooperation.

The bloc will review its rules with an eye to increasing the amount of common EU funding available for covering the cost of its overseas civilian and military missions. It will study options for making the rules for deploying the battle groups more flexible and for ensuring the crisis-response teams are better equipped to respond to specific crises.

The EU will also hold regular leaders’ summits on defense and security and conduct an annual ministerial review of how the EU is doing to build greater defense capabilities. And it will look at the options for allowing a group of EU member states to set up a permanent defense structure that can build up the bloc’s defense readiness.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Monday’s decisions are a key moment in developing the bloc’s potential...

More.