In your Video about the proposals on the amendment of the EU you mentioned the council meeting is likely scheduled for March. Are there any new informations?

I dont get why you frame Trump as an enemy of Europe, when he’s simply asking Europe to pull its weight, to pay the amount that was agreed upon when entering NATO. How’s that a bad thing?

European army -yes EU army-hell no

Just a few days ago Trump claimed he was a billionaire, then said he can't pay his 450 million dollar fine for (a few) of his 91 felonies. Lol.

He's right in this case, though. Europe has been famous for spending lavishly on social benefits and infrastructure while the US foots the bill for defense of the continent. Then Europeans spit in the face of Americans, calling us warmongers and uneducated and insulting our systems. You don't get to do that and expect us to continue paying for your security.

Trump is more suited for staging fake wrestiling and mudpit fighting.

​@@draum8103That's because nobody has his entire fortune in cash. Most billioners have most of their fortunes in stocks, bonds, real estate properties, shares of various companies etc.

@@draum8103 tbf that is incredibly hard to find the liquidity for.

Right on bruh

Hell no

I'm from Ukraine and I love you

If you want that to happend, your country needs a new prime minister. Your prime minister is going to block every advancement in that direction.

Change your gouvernement

Tier 4 is extremely dangerous for the European population. I dont trust the European Parlament even tho Im pro EU. Why shouldnt such an European Army be used internally as a police force or the next time a member state tries to leave?

100% agreed, from Hungary.

Such a thing cannot happen in defence. Would a country who voted against a war send its citizens to fight in it? This is why nato works the way it does.

@@kingdedede1066 There is a single European citizenship alongside national citizenship.

@@falsevacuum4667 you would need a federation before this level of integration could be considered, and then there would be no point in a qualified majority anyway

Why? Is federation between the US and Canada necessary? I like d the looser co-operation between like minded countries that the EEC represented. The EU is just a power-grabbing monster.

​​@@paullarne, we need states like US has, we are not talkin about US and Canada.

@@mirceabyd we need states like the USSR has ?

@@SP95 USSR was a dictatorship. Federation of Europe a democracy.

@@Jurjen. Funnily enough, North Korea is also a democracy.

I think that a good defense of the European Union is a firm step towards the right goal the establishment of the 4th pillar common defense. And also a fail safe for NATO and the USA. Yes yes it is a national prerogative but it would be fair for all EU states to have the same wages in military and same training and be good and greatly coordinated. In the end they are all defending the same thing: our lives, lifestyles and freedoms. Same goal.

You guys know that the United States President doesn't have the authority to "pull out," that can only be done by Congress. Also, Trump is an ass and his own base is turning on him. Many people that voted for him the first time, because he was a wildcard, now hate him. It is also not like we will throw away everything we have done and sacrificed to build this alliance up. Hell, if Europe would just go all in and fight against Russia (or until an American dies)...you'll all find out why we don't have "free" social services. Trust me, after seeing Russia get it's ass handed to them by a country that is smaller than a few of my states by woefully untrained resistance fighters...this will be easier than destroying the Iraqi army. I fear you guys just don't have the stomach to do what must be done. I swear to God...if USA has to do another Normandy landing because you guys failed to act...how about all USA debts we owe to any of you will be forgiven?

Thank you! It's so annoying hear in the word European army used interchangeably with European defence

Denmark? Calm your goals there buddy. Luxemburg would take us at this point man

Although I see your point, it’s not just about defending from each other, but national interests. Will France help Spain fend off their issues? Will Hungary approve of specific missions? The smaller the country the less say they have over military issues, making at least for now, a national army necessary.

Thing is most countries (and the people living there) like their own sovereignty and having your own army, that you and only you can control is a big part of that sovereignty. Also the EU is not as stable as you might think! Euroscepticism has been on the rise for the past couple of years, populism, nationalism and far right ideologies are also experiencing a surge in a lot of EU countries.

Keeping a national army on top of an Federal Army would be nice if the EU federal project goes tits up. Othervise I am all for Federation of Europe.

I hope Europe will stand with Serpska.

Many Europeans agree with that too but we have the same problem as the US at the moment. Too many stupid people :D

Too many socialists*

Is not a bad thing for the USA.... They can sell weapons (more than 100 billions just in the last 2 years) and get an enormous amount of power by having an entire continent as pseudo vassals who will enforce their sanctions and basically double their power by following all their decisions, what Trump is saying is something you discuss in private not something you say out loud so your enemies can listen..... Also if you don't have your own plans you will be in someone else's plans.... Imagine if the USA choose isolationism with n**I Germany or the Ussr..... Even the USA could have spoken German or became communist by now.

Yeah imagine we would use all this money we spent on seperate armies now for one single one. We could have someting that is similar powerful like your US army. And if this new EU army gets the same NATO membership, we all would profit from that. Less comlpex command, structures less diverse equippment and maybe even a europe that can defend itself 😂 and don't ask you americans for help all the time. 😂😂😂 And we can still be partners and work together in NATO for our defence and our belive in freedom and democracy.

Thank you bro, as soon as we become capable then the world will look different at Europe´s defense capabilities.

of course we have no choice... we need this asap

@@Elliasp-xx7mbWe do have a choice, but having 27 voices is a massive weakness that others are playing on, we need to streamline the process in getting things done, that likely means removing the veto rule. If we don't get our act together, we'll likely get pushed aside by the other big powers.

@@paul1979uk2000 of course I agree. I meant : "we have no choice to do this now" ;)

@@Elliasp-xx7mb True, and honestly, the groundwork for this should have been laid well over a decade ago, too much time has been wasted, and honestly, I have to blame Germany, they've been way too slow on all this, they've been too trusting of Russia and part of the blame is on the eastern EU members who are too trusting of the US, but don't get me wrong, they are our allies, but to think they care about us in Europe is laughable at best, sad at worse, they care about self-interest of the US only and it's high time Europeans wake up to that reality and start looking after themselves, and the best way to do that is through the EU, both Trump and Putin are clear indicators that we in Europe need a stronger voice.

@@paul1979uk2000 They all remind me Harry Potter : "No, Voldemor is not here !!! We don't need war !" ;-))

With Ireland being neutral it would be difficult to see anything above Tier 1 would even be possible in principle.

​@@inbb510Ireland has already suggested they could be OK with increased military cooperation within the EU, but NATO remains a red line.

Continue dreaming, Eastern Europe will continue to rely on the US and UK as long as Italy, France and Germany behave like absolute cowards.

No there should be no acting against EU countries, if the government changes in democratic election it's what people want and if they leave EU it's people's will, we should no intervene in others countires in EU

@@Kiiiurself8482 you have misunderstood what I said.

Yes European police force for domestic protection and European army just because we can.

@@atharvaveda87 Europol already exists, there is no need for a centralised EU police force. There is also no political appetite for it.

@@sevatarlives185 europol is a cooperation program not a single centralized police agency

As a Ukrainian too, this idea is really good, considering last news from the USA. EU-army will not be dependent from the USA and any other nation, military communication and connections between countries will be on the highest level. Moreover, the only danger for the hypothetical EU-army can be on east front, so Ukraine will make this army much more stronger: the country on the east block, with one of the strongest army in Europe and experience of real war. But I really hope this our experience will never be needed and this war is the last in Europe

My guess is it will be like the 20 minimum wage in California and Starbucks is not included. I think France would find a way

Yup thats the part they don't say in their speeches. They want to keep control of their nuclear weapons but they want others to pay for it.

Uhm. They are already bound for nuclear response as a part of nato

I highly doubt that France will use nukes for other nations and risk to become a target itself

Ready? That's basically his plan...

We do have a choice, but those choices are narrowing quickly, we have wasted a lot of time over the last decade as it is, are choices are simply, we either go into decline, where we get sidelined, pushed aside by the bigger powers like the US and China, or we can come together and defend our interest, and this isn't just on military matters, it will impact foreign policy matters, the economy and maybe even our social programs, we need a strong voice so we can defend our political, economic and social interest, otherwise in time, we might see those 3 being watered down by pressure from outsiders. So we do have choices, but going on the political realities of how the world is shaping up, our choices are very limited towards decline or further integration into the EU, maybe a bit of decline is needed to reduce those doubters but that would be unfortunate for Europeans, so I don't see further integration as something desirable, I see it as something that over the long term is going to be needed, China and the US are the ones to contend with today, but there's a rising India and the potential of other blocks around the world forming, these are the realities we in Europe need to wake up to and fast because we've wasted too much time already, which if I were to put the blame on any of the countries, Germany would take a lot of the blame for being too trusting of Russia and not being aggressive enough in pushing to streamline the military process across the EU, the other blame is some of the eastern EU countries that are too trusting of the US, the truth is, the US only cares if they stand to benefit from it, if they don't, they rarely care about anything outside its own boarders, Europeans need to stand up and look after themselves and our best chance of that is through the EU together.

Europe obviously has a choice. That choice is NATO. The UK and USA are far more reliable than the cowards in Berlin and Paris, and if one day, for whatever reason, the US would leave NATO, getting nuclear weapons would be far more worthy than depending on "5000 helmets" Germany and "security guarantees for Putin" France.

I don't see that happening. There are too many defence companies with ties to their respective goverments.

@@Micha-qv5uf They will have to spread it out among contributing states to make it effective and palatable to the public. I really can't see any of this investment happening if all our money goes to Germany, Sweeden and Framce. But I suppose that would be still far better than the eastern bloc buying everything from the USA like they currently are. So far the only true stand out and non swappable weapon from the US has been the patriot launcher because they wont stop taking down planes at the moment (around 18 in the last 21 days). Everything else could be made in house and works fine.

@@Micha-qv5uf That probably won't be that difficult to streamline those defence industries across the EU, the members would in the long run get more bang for their buck when it comes to equipment and arms and it could create a lot of jobs. The real difficult part will be creating the political institution that does the decision-making on military and foreign policy matters, which it's a given that with an EU military, foreign policy matters will be a lot more streamlined at the EU level, they kinda go hand in hand.

Yes, please, I think a fully unified foreign policy is neither neccesary nor desirable

Yeah, I think they mixed up the EU’s pop and the continent’s pop

@@kennethmoses4900 He did not. He clearly spoke of a united European continent of around 700 million people at 8:27

​@@mathiaswetekam1253 Yup, but that's kind of dumb to say that as a united europe of 700 million people we can stand strong, because no, were are not a united europe of 700 million but of 450 million people As of now, we can't include countries like Turkey, Serbia etc into the equation, it's just doesn't make sense, even on the long term He should have just said we are very powerful as a united europe of 450, which is both true, and good enough, hell ! That's more than the USA's population ! For a more or less equivalent economy

Like Russia ?

@@SP95 Europe is a democracy, Russia a dictatorship.

@@Jurjen. What is a democracy ? Forcing 49% of the population to bow over the interest of 51% of the population ? That isn't far from what the USSR did.

@@SP95 "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" Churchill.

​@@SP95with youre logic democracys dont exist

Trump is right about the EU not meeting defense commitments, and he's not the only US president to complain about it; Obama did as well. Long story short, the EU essentially freeloads on American defense infrastructure and spending. When Russia attacked Ukraine, it wasn't the EU that responded, it was the US and UK. I'm all for a European army because it means the US can reduce its defense spending, and it'll mean your welfare benefits take a hit. A win/win in my book.

Trump is just angry with everyone, if it's not military budgets, it would be something else he would pick on.

@@jeffmorris5802I think you misunderstand, it's not freeloading, it's more that Europeans, especially western ones in the EU don't see Russia as much of a threat to need to spend more. The irony is that many are seeing the US more as a threat lately, especially with Trump, and I think Trump is the one that focusing minds in Europe more than Putin is doing, but not for the reasons that you think, many Europeans are seeing the US as being too polarised, erratic and unpredictable, it's that what is really making many Europeans to think, so Putin got the ball rolling but the US is adding to that and it's not just Europeans thinking that, many are starting to see that the US isn't what it used to be. Also, what are you talking about, if you combine EU and its members spending, they put far more money in Ukraine then the US have done, it was close in how much both were giving to Ukraine, but with all the political wrangling going on with the Republicans and Democrats, the EU has been taking the lead, so enough with the freeloading BS. As for the US, it could reduce its military spending, but it probably won't because of China, in fact, the US might end up spending more as China becomes a bigger threat, there's also the factor of the EU pushing on arms production first, that's probably intentional to build an arms industry, considering the US is already a big arms seller, having the EU being one would very likely be in direct competition with the US on the world market and would likely eat into the sales of arms the US sells around the world, that would put a squeeze on the US budget, meaning either the military budget will shrink or American taxpayers have to dig deeper to fund it, whereas on the EU side, they have everything to play when it comes to arms sales. Also, welfare benefits are unlikely to take a hit, maybe you don't realise this, but European countries used to spend far more on the military decades ago than they do now and still had an effective welfare system, the US doesn't have much of a welfare system because it chooses not to have one, it's not really a money issue, in fact on average, Americans spend around twice as much as other modern countries and get worse results, the system is the problem not money.

@@jeffmorris5802 dude Ukraine is not in EU and not in NATO but USA has a lot of investments in Ukraine and that is that USA is protecting. I often think of the 2nd WW from many pow but the 2 things I will tell are these Germany in little time almost knelt Europe if the reds would have lost the Americans would have never help the allies because they wouldn’t have won the war

@@atharvaveda87 The US doesn't have literally anything in Ukraine. Apple is worth 15x Ukraine's entire pre-war GDP. Ukraine may not be in NATO or the EU, but it is literally on Europe's doorstep. Like, you're RIGHT next to it. The USA, perhaps you were unaware, in on the other side of the damn planet.

Turkey is not a eu member state and they will not be one for a very long time your orban made sure of that

Tier 4 is extremely dangerous for the European population. I dont trust the European Parlament even tho Im pro EU. Why shouldnt such an European Army be used internally as a police force or the next time a member state tries to leave?

With regards to the parallel different developments and precurements: there's strategic strenght in diversity. There's an extra level of redundancy; a Zero Day, other exploit or other disruption can't cripple a whole fleet of 2 different fighter models (that have some parity) The added complexity and inefficiency of having to rely?on multiple seperate supply lines might offset strategic value, so let's definitively not start developing a 3rd nextgen fighter. To finish off with a quote my favourite movie (ghost in the shell 1995): "No matter how powerful we may be fighting-wise, a system where all the parts react the same way is a system with a fatal flaw. Like individual, like organization overspecialization leads to death." - Motoko to Togusa, after the latter inquired to why the former added a human without cybernetic andadvanced technological battle enhancement to the SpecOps team

@@jezusbloodie That is correct but overall there are definitely too many weapon systems in Europe. It shouldn't be all the same since, as you said, there's strength in diversity, but at the moment it is definitely too much.

@@Micha-qv5uf Fair, it is a bit (very) much with most material and equipment.

Eurobonds zo er van have the whole of South Europe to become like Greece again?

@@Jurjen. Do you even understand how Eurobonds work? They are common denominated debt, just like during Corona.

@@blackhole3298 Correct. With Greece, Spain, etc, going broke so they're destroying the euro while the northern countries party up.

@@blackhole3298 Yep thats why I prefer and actual EU defence budget.

I think in the short term, there can be a bit of a mix, but I agree with you, overtime, there needs to be rules in place that at least the majority of arms are bought and built in the EU, that would create jobs, an arms industry and would over time be profitable for those jobs in the EU with how many arms is sold around the world. But we shouldn't shut ourselves off from buying arms from outside the EU, but we should reduce it a lot, but we do need to fill the void in all areas of military equipment so there's less need to buy from outside of the EU, which we already do in some areas but more will need to be done. Euro bonds wouldn't be such a bad idea, or maybe a reduction in taxes at a national level as they don't have to pay for their own militaries and a direct EU tax, there are many ways of going about it and honestly, I don't know the best approach to go about it, but I think it's time we figure something out.

And the earlier one is also not one im in favor off, besides tier 4 would force the defence industry of France with its fierce tradition of strategical autonomy to give all of its research and tech to Europe for Free, which Germany and the rest of Europe would love, but its the french tax which is spent into this and the french would not see a big return on investment from it. A european unified army is too federalist for my taste, and i dont want a federation just an union between sovereign countries, we dont NEED be fully unified afterall, only to stick together and make a united front against all threat to Europe

Well its still the same idea as a few years back, the "EU nuclear defence policy" is primarly led by you guessed it France since its the only country with nukes in Europe (besides Russia for obvious reason) completely autonomous from the US and its nuclear doctrine. Aka its a way for France to essentially enforce its leadership over Europe by covering it with the french nuclear arsenal instead of the American one, big differance being that unli’e the US who is deemed unpredictable, France is still usually more agressive in its nuclear deterrant policy and obviously more involved in Europe. Spoiler the rest of Europe dont mind the nuclear coverage, they dont want french leadership however haha

if the loathsome EU central institution railroads its member states into a pan-EU military, it'll undermine NATO's European pillar. At which point we British and every other non-EU NATO power should leave forthwith.

As European i dont like Tier 4 as much as people say nationalism is outdated and as true as it may be, our countries were sovereigns sometime for over a thousand years straight and a rare few much more than even that, a federation would cut that sovereignty apart, its easyier for pre existing federations to take a look at a European federation and love the idea Germany is born from a federation ofc it would be more tolerant of a bigger one. But like im french as much as we hate Paris we lived under a ideal of centralisation since long prior to the discovery of America, even if de facto it was only fully centralised much later. We may not be strong when divided, but if theres one thing im confident we can do, its that we can outlast the current superpowers and collaborate towards the same goal without uniting under the same banner. Besides we dont NEED to talk equal to equal with the other bigs, we only need to tell them that striking us down is not worth it as it only invites mutual destruction, or as the french doctrine would say "dissuasion from the weak to the strong" If we can blow up the ten biggest and most important places in any given country even if we are the weaker one and disrespected, they will not bully as hard due to the risk

Turkey's defense budget this year is not 40 billion. The total budget of defense and security sectors such as the ministry of defense, police, gendarmerie, ministry of interior, intelligence agency, defense industry support fund, coast guard, etc. is 40 billion dollars. This year's budget of the Ministry of Defense is only 15 billion dollars. There was a misunderstanding on this matter.

France and Germany are weak. France is a muslim country. Exactly like Germany

@@Misterx-xx1lj You probably never visited France so why are you crying ? Muslim represent 15% of the population and we are going to stop immigration so it won't be more than that. Mind your own buisness you are probably coming from a shitty country so you have a lot to do.

Yea but 2% of Bulgarias GDP equals round about what I have in coins in my pocket atm..

It's about time. They should have been doing that for decades.

Not for bulgaria, dream on ​@@CedarHunt

​@@CedarHuntFrance traditionally was around that point, 1.9% is not far from the 2%, at this point over time ive just wondered if this was not an ellaborate prank on American isolationists by France since it always wanted its own strategical autonomy and left the Nato joint command stucture for this autonomy too aka just the right to say "f you"

@@erwannthietart3602 The French aren't smart enough for that. They're just petty and arrogant enough to think they can play fairweather friends and still be defended if they are attacked.

local conflict? are you serious? firstly, it is not a conflict, but a war, and secondly, the fate of the world depends on this war

@@user-vm6lr9hu4o A war can also be described as a conflict between two countries, also no , the fate of the world doesn't depend on this war, but the fate of millions of people does!

@@user-vm6lr9hu4oLocal in the sense that the actual fighting happens in one country only, and that's how it started out. If, like me, you believe that the fighting in Gaza and the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are parts of the same picture, then this war is indeed no longer local, but has started to spread. Regarding the terminology please note the first three words of my original post. The liberal, democratic Europe I grew up und live in is definetly at stake here, and its fall would have ramifications for many parts of the world. If you reread my original post, I do not think we are that far apart.

@@ralfklonowski3740 And still many Europeans will vote for Euro sceptics in the upcoming election. It is on us to make the difference.

@@Micha-qv5ufI totally agree.

Hell yea!!