EU Moves Toward ‘Military Schengen,’ Speeding Up Possible Mobilization of Forces Across Europe

The European Commission (EC) has unveiled a military mobility package aimed at making it easier to deploy troops, tanks, and equipment across the European Union’s 27 member states, in what it describes as a step toward a “Military Schengen.”

The plans, announced on Nov. 19, are part of efforts to ensure that Europe is ready to defend itself by 2030 and reflect the EU’s other military ambitions, which aim to increase defense spending and develop strategies to combat hybrid warfare.

The term “Military Schengen” is a reference to Europe’s border-free travel zone, the Schengen Area, made up of 25 EU member countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

The EC aims to have the bloc-wide military mobility area in place by 2027.

Kaja Kallas, the EC high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in prepared comments accompanying the announcement that the fast movement of military forces “is essential for Europe’s defence.”

“Defence readiness fundamentally depends on whether you can get your tanks and troops to where you need them, when you need them,” Kallas said. “Today, we are proposing an emergency system for cross-border military transport and an initiative to pool member countries’ transport to make moving troops easier across the continent.”

She added that Europe was facing “unprecedented security threats,” in reference to the war on Europe’s doorstep between Russia and Ukraine, which is approaching its fifth year.

In a Chatham House speech on June 9, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years” and urged the defense alliance to strengthen itself and be ready to respond to an expanding range of threats.

Cutting Paperwork, Improving Infrastructure

On June 25 at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, alliance members agreed on a defense spending target of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.

This is broken down into targets of 3.5 percent of GDP to be spent on core defense—such as weapons, troops, and equipment—and 1.5 percent of GDP for defense and security-related infrastructure, such as protecting energy pipelines and undersea cables and adapting roads, bridges, and ports for use by large military vehicles.

Among the EC’s plans are proposals to harmonize rules across the bloc to make it easier to move militaries across national boundaries and to streamline processing time for notices of cross-border troop movements to three days.

In remarks made to the press on Nov. 19, Kallas said: “[Some EU member states] still require 45 days’ notice before other countries’ troops can pass through their [country] for exercises, for example. Eleven years after Russia annexed Crimea, this is simply not good enough.”

Reinforcing transport infrastructure is also a priority under the plans.

“Investing in infrastructure is crucial. If a bridge cannot carry a 60-ton tank, we have a problem. If a runway is too short for a cargo plane, we cannot resupply our troops,” Kallas said.

“It is quite simple: The faster we can move forces, the stronger our deterrence and defence. We need to be talking about days, not weeks, to move troops in Europe.”

Military Mobility Hotspots

The EC said in a question-and-answer sheet that it had identified about 500 “hotspot” projects to remove “bottlenecks” in Europe’s critical military mobility corridors.

Projects include increasing port and airport capacity, reinforcing bridges, and widening tunnels.

“A strong Europe needs both an adaptive and innovating defence industry and the ability to move its forces and assets at scale and speed,” Andrius Kubilius, the commissioner for defense and space, said.

“Our aim is to achieve an EU-wide military mobility area by 2027—a ‘Military Schengen’, which would allow an effective movement of military transport, sharing of its assets by Member States, and helping each other in emergency situations.”

The EU’s executive branch said it will present these proposed measures to the European Council and the European Parliament for adoption.