Sorry Manu! Macron’s desperate EU army plot torn apart by Bulgarian MEP – ‘Want OWN army!’

Brexit: Nigel Farage says the UK can 'deal' with EU army plans

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The founder of the Bulgaria of Labour and Reason party claimed a joint European army led by Brussels would only look to serve the oligarchs of the European Union. In a savage attack on French President Macron, Mr Markov claimed anything resembling a united strategic plan in the bloc would be unacceptable.

The left-wing politician hopes his country’s military becomes completely independent outside the bloc, arguing cooperation based on mutual interests can always be maintained even without the EU.

He told Express.co.uk: “I can see the EU at the top of the new liberalism. The European Union is the purest product in substance of neo-liberalism which only defends the interests of the oligarchy, mainly German and French.

“So anything connected to the European Union – and what Macron sees as a European army – is a product of this.

“For me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s commanded from Washington, in the case of NATO, or from Brussels.

“We want independent Bulgaria to command its own army. We are willing to work and cooperate with all countries in the world based on mutual interests, even with countries from the European Union after we leave the EU.

“If we have mutual interests in some areas we will cooperate. But I struggle to see the EU as an actual union.”

The French President has repeatedly called for the EU to become more strategically independent since he became France’s head of state in 2017.

Last week, Brussels rubberstamped a £4.3billion defence project which has been tipped to pave the way for the long-proposed EU army.

The French leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both reportedly expressed interest in such a move, particularly after the US pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2018.

The so-called EU army does not exist at the moment, with military powers organised individually by the 27 EU member states.

But during an interview with Welt in Germany, Bundestag President and CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble was asked whether a “closely interlinked Franco-German defence community would fail because both states have a contradicting basic understanding of the deployment of the army?”

The newspaper also asked: “To put it another way: as long as Germany is committed to the principle of the parliamentary army, there can be no common army.”

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Mr Schäuble replied: “The Bundeswehr is not a real parliamentary army, otherwise, as President of the Bundestag, I would be the Commander-in-Chief. Thank God I was spared of that.

“But you are right about parliamentary scrutiny: we have to move more than the French. That’s why I was hoping for the Aachen contract.

“For example, I could have imagined a regulation where members of a joint chamber of the French National Assembly and the Bundestag decide on an operation if the two governments consider it right.

“If we could achieve that, the Franco-German brigade could finally be awakened from their sleep.”

France’s former Defence Minister Sylvie Goulard, who was also taking part in the same interview with Die Welt, also suggested her country would be willing to form a “common army with the Germans”.

She said: “Most of the French would not have any reservations about forming a common army with the Germans.

“It would only have to be debated beforehand what purpose this army should have. What resources do we want to make available to it?”

But the former Defence Minister warned: “The institutional structures would also have to be solidly built so that they are crisis-proof. It’s a matter of life and death.

“It must not happen that when the first coffins return to Europe, self-doubts arise about the fundamental necessity of the common army.”

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