Ticker
Top candidates clash on EU army plan in pre-election debate
By EUobserver
The top candidates to lead the next European Commission clashed on plans to create an EU army at a debate in the European University Institute in Florence Wednesday. The German centre-right candidate, Manfred Weber, and Belgian liberal one, Guy Verhofstadt, endorsed the idea, but the Dutch centre-left candidate, Frans Timmermans, rejected it as being unrealistic. "There will be no EU army for the foreseeable future," Timmermans said.