Military mobility: seven years lost since the first 2018 EU action plan

Brussels – Military mobility: The EU is finally trying to shake itself awake. The ability to move troops and military equipment has long been a pressing issue, and it was the former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker who first sought to reshape a still over-fragmented Europe in this respect. With the Luxembourger at the head of the Commission came the Military Mobility Action Plan, put on the table in 2018 amidst general distracted interest.

Juncker understood that the world was changing and that Europe would have to change with it and keep up with the times to be better able to respond to the challenges, just like today. In 2018, there was already the Russian question, as Moscow had annexed Crimea and the military campaign in Ukraine had already started. The former President of the EU executive worked to push for a Defense Union by 2025, rediscovering the common European army project, and put the Military Mobility Action Plan on the table.

 Little has been done since then. Today, a study by the European Parliament’s think tank notes that “challenges such as outdated bridges, tunnels and railways, along with inconsistent regulations across EU Member States, impede swift military movements.” These are the same impediments the Juncker Commission identified in 2018, which called for defining essential infrastructure needs to enable the efficient movement of military forces across the EU. Secondly, the plan addressed transport infrastructure, with the European Commission identifying segments of the large TEN-T networks that could be earmarked for dual-use purposes.

Little, if anything, has been done, the Defense Commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, admitted in an interview with Euronews: bridges, tunnels, and railways remain obsolete. This inaction and the delays stem from the European Union’s confederal structure, where member states often act as a brake. Not until 30 January 2024, when the Defense Ministers of Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland signed a letter of intent to build a corridor for military mobility, did Europe wake up and set in motion a previously unseen political shift.

 Since then, further corridors have been created, with two letters of intent signed during the NATO summit in Washington,  the experts of the European Parliament’s think tank noted. One of these military mobility corridors involves Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, and North Macedonia; the other involves Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. At the same time, other corridors are being developed, all based on the first letter of intent between Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland, taken as a template.

Europe, as a union of states, continues to suffer from delays due to political fragmentation. Furthermore, defense and security remain exclusively national matters. The EU has issued a call to action and drafted strategies. However, seven years after the introduction of the military mobility plan, the EU’s progress has been minimal. The Russian-Ukrainian war has revived the issue; now, the challenge is to make up for the many delays.