A European Army Would Need to Walk on Water

The call by the Luxembourgeois  Juncker for  a European Union army to 'defend European values' is so offensive at so many levels that perhaps it's simplest to stop at the first: what is needed is a not an army but a navy.  An army  will be useful later but right now ruling the waves (and by modern extension the airspace over the waves and nearby coastal strips) has priority.  As a comment on the FT noted most  European armies are well-armed pension funds.

That the Italian prime minister has more political sense than most presidents has been demonstrated amply over the last couple of years in his own country but his evaluation of what is needed in the Mediterranean and who can offer it is a lesson in realpolitik.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation yearning for lumbering about in tanks on the central and eastern European plains and being rude to Russia is just so  20th century; an exemplar of the well-armed pension fund.  If President Juncker (lots of presidents these days) wants  to 'defend European values'  he needs to stop playing eastern front 1940s games and build some ships and helicopters.  Otherwise Europe will just have to hope Russia can provide.