BERLIN (Sputnik) – The majority of German citizens back the idea of merging the existing military structures of the European Union's member states into a single European army, a recent YouGov poll said.
“The result is surprising as the defense policy is usually regarded as part of core sovereignty of a state. People [usually] openly oppose transfer of national competences in the defense policy to the European level,” Michael Broening, head of the FES international political analysis department, said in a press release.
The plan of creating the European army, which goes back to 1950, was revived in March 2015 by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who said the bloc needed its own unified army to respond to threats the EU member states are facing.