UK Defense Secretary Says No Consensus Reached in EU on Creation of Single Army

There is no consensus in the European Union on the idea of creating a single EU army, as the United Kingdom is not the only member state to oppose the move, UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — Earlier this month, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that London will not be able to veto the decision to create the single force since the nation had voted to leave the bloc in a June referendum.

"There is no majority here for a EU army. There is a number of countries that believe with us that that cuts across the sovereignty of individual nation states," Fallon told reporters on the doorstep of an informal EU summit in Bratislava.

According to Fallon, Europe needs to step up to the challenges of terrorism and migration, but "undermining NATO is the wrong way to do it."

The plans to merge the existing defense structures of the EU member states into a single army have been under discussion for years but never came to existence, partly due to the opposition from the United Kingdom, which has advocated that NATO should ensure the bloc's security. The country's decision to exit the European Union has revived the talks.