The European Union Proposes New Rules For Military Mobility

UNSPLASH/Guillaume Périgois ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The European Commission submitted a proposal for the militarychengen' rule to accelerate the movement of military personnel and equipment in the territory of European Union countries, both in peaceful situations and in a state of emergency.

The proposal was conveyed by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the Sovereignty of Technology, Security and Democracy, Henna Vikkunen, Wednesday, November 19.

"Military mobility is a top priority to strengthening the European defense, and therefore we adopted today's military mobility package. Our goal is to create military Schegen, where European troops and equipment can move quickly and safely across our borders," Virkkunen said at a press conference reported by ANTARA from Sputnik-OANA.

The European Commission stated that regulatory barriers related to military mobility would be abolished with a maximum processing time limit of three days.

Virkkunen added the European Union would form an emergency framework in the form of an accelerated European military mobility response system, to accelerate procedures and provide priority access to infrastructure that supports armed forces operations in the context of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transportation and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, said the European Union plans to allocate 100 billion euros or about 115.9 billion US dollars (around Rp1,936.5 trillion) to build 500 strategic infrastructure points by 2030.

The Readiness 2030 agenda, according to him, confirms that all of these projects must be completed before the end of this decade.

"We estimate the construction of 500 hotspots will cost around 100 billion euros, so we need to start investing now," said Tzitikostas.

According to a European Commission statement, the initiative aims to facilitate the transfer of troops and military equipment to eastern territory in the event of a conflict with Russia.

"Europe must learn from Ukraine's experience, strengthen resilience, and build a new defense ecosystem that unites industry players, innovators, and the tech community to bring capabilities more quickly and efficiently," the statement said.

In recent years, Russia has stated that NATO activity on its western border has increased significantly.NATO continues to expand its initiative and calls the move an attempt to "resist Russian aggression."

Russian authorities have repeatedly expressed concern over the increase in military-political bloc activity in Europe. The Kremlin insists Russia does not threaten anyone, but will not ignore actions that have the potential to jeopardize its interests.