The European Commission has offered to put aside €1.5 billion a year for joint defence spending in what could be the first step toward the creation of an EU army.
It said in Brussels on Wednesday (7 June) the EU should spend €500 million a year of its joint budget from 2020 onward on R&D of new military technologies, such as robotics or cyber defence.
It said it should spend a further €1 billion a year on joint procurement of high-technology items such as surveillance drones.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.