Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, said that the Lisbon Treaty had established “that if some countries want to enter into reinforced co-operation between themselves they can do so.” This was already the case with the euro and the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, and could now be applied to “common European defence…”
Mr Frattini said that at present “every country duplicates its forces, each of us puts armoured cars, men, tanks, planes, into Afghanistan. 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.” (photo: Hrvoje Polan/AFP/Getty)