MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Union should create its headquarters in Europe, as well as to establish a European Defense Fund to bolster the bloc's common defense and promote security-related research and development, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday.
"We must have a European headquarters and so we should work toward a common military force. This should be in complement with NATO," Juncker said in the annual State of the Union speech.
France and Germany call for EU military headquarters, more cooperation with NATO, cross-border military planning. https://t.co/7QMKRDqV43
— POLITICO Europe (@POLITICOEurope) 12 сентября 2016 г.
From an economic point of view, bringing together the EU military resources could be clearly justified, he noted.
"We can use cooperation and that is something, which is very useful because the lack of cooperation is something that is costing Europe 20 to 100 billion [euros] [$23 to $112 billion] a year," Juncker added.
The European Commission head also proposed to set up a European Defense Fund to stimulate research and development in the security sphere.
