(January 15, 2020 at 8:20 am)Mr Greene Wrote: The Falklands are not part of the EU so the answer is a straight no.
Actually you can't say that.
An EU army could not be set up unless there was some agreement to either defend non-EU territories held by EU countries, or let countries defend them independently. So either way, an EU army wouldn't stop the UK defending the Falklands if it wanted to.
The UK is not the only country that holds territory overseas and countries are not going to join an EU army if it means that they can't somehow defend their own territory.
In fact as it currently stands these territories do enjoy special status within the EU with varying degrees of compliance to EU law.
Special member state territories and the European Union
Quote:The special territories of the European Union are 31 territories of EU member states which, for historical, geographical, or political reasons, enjoy special status within or outside the European Union.
An EU army would have meant defending the Falkland Islands would have been a far less risky endeavour and Argentina would have been less likely to have invaded. And if they did anyway then economic sanctions would have been more effective because it would have been carried out by a larger trading block than the UK, meaning war would have been less likely. An EU army would also mean that prime ministers, as with Thatcher and the Falkland islands, would be less tempted to go to war to win a general election.
(January 15, 2020 at 8:20 am)Mr Greene Wrote: Besides the French were busy trying to sell Exocet.
They wouldn't be doing that if they then had to send their own troops to fight the buyers of their Exocet missiles.
(January 15, 2020 at 8:20 am)Mr Greene Wrote: All NATO countries commit spending 2% GDP on defence, let us know when Germany thinks it will get around to meeting its commitment.
That's a NATO commitment and because America has such as a vast military force, spending 2% of GDP is actually just a waste of money. Most EU countries spend less than 2% of their GDP on the military. If an EU army were to be formed then there could be mechanisms in place to make sure that each country met their required contributions.
NATO members’ promise of spending 2% of their GDP on defence is proving hard to keep