The European Union should establish its joint army that can play a peacekeeping role and prevent conflicts, said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Tajani stated that closer European cooperation in defense is a priority for the Forza Italia party, which he leads.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to be peacemakers in the world, we need a European army. This is a fundamental prerequisite for us to have an effective European foreign policy,\u201d he said in the interview published on January 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world with powerful players like the United States, China, India, Russia \u2013 with crises from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific \u2013 Italian, French, or Slovenian citizens can only withstand something that exists, namely the European Union,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The issue of European cooperation in defense has been on the political agenda since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.<\/p>\n
However, efforts have primarily focused on expanding NATO, with Finland \u2013 an EU member \u2013 joining the alliance last year, and Sweden also on the path to joining NATO.<\/p>\n
Tajani also said that the 27 EU member states need to improve their leadership and create a single presidency, not like the current structure where the European Council has a president and the European Commission also has a president.<\/p>\n
Tajani became the leader of Forza Italia last year after the death of Silvio Berlusconi.<\/p>\n
The European Parliament elections in June will be the first measure of the party\u2019s popularity after losing its charismatic leader, Silvio Berlusconi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Union should establish its joint army that can play a peacekeeping role and prevent conflicts, said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Tajani stated that closer European cooperation in defense is a priority for the Forza Italia party, which he leads. \u201cIf we want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":64369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[810,308,5688,889,243,151,4461],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n