Slovak liberals support idea of joint EU army

The liberal Freedom and Solidarity party supports the proposal of a joint EU army considering it the one sphere where European integration might not be detrimental and where the positives outweigh the negatives. According to former defence minister and current MP Lubomir Galko, the way other member states such as Great Britain and France will approach the issue remains to be seen, however. "I prefer the integration of selected corps rather than creating a kind of mammoth army. If anything similar to a joint army were to be created, states such as Slovakia and Hungary would have to reconsider the amount of resources they allocate for defence, otherwise they couldn't serve as full-fledged partners for the joint project", he said. In an interview given to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of an EU army in the wake of rising tensions with Russia. "Such an army would help us form joint foreign affairs and security policies and assume European responsibility in the world together", he claimed.