EU cannot rely on "bonsai armies" in face of current strategic threats - Borrell

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, wrote about this in a blog on the website of the European Foreign Policy Service.

"European armies have been ‘hollowed out’ and been described as ‘bonsai armies’: they look like the real thing but have shrunk into miniature versions," the diplomat writes.

Borrell cites the July 13 testimony of France's chief of general staff, who openly questioned whether the combination of the focus on expeditionary and asymmetric warfare plus budget cuts have put into question the French army’s ability to wage a ‘high intensity’ conflict on European soil.

"The question is what to do. What type of conflicts do we prepare our armies for and what sort of decisions flow from that in terms of posture, budgets, training etc.? We cannot continue to face a more threatening strategic landscape including opponents using high intensity warfare with ‘bonsai armies’. At the same time, we cannot pretend to be satisfied with our record of expeditionary warfare," Borrell said.

In his opinion, all this requires a willingness to think deeply and seriously about choices and compromises and make appropriate decisions.

"The real meaning is to consider this together as Europeans. Our armies need to be able to handle both territorial defence and asymmetric war further afield" he emphasized.

According to Borrell, this should be done within the framework of NATO, since almost all EU member states are now members of the Alliance.

"But we also need to be able to rely more on ourselves and demonstrate our strategic responsibility when our security interests are at stake at our borders and beyond. This is why EU member states need to invest better and together and cooperate much more on defence" -  said the EU's chief diplomat.