All over Europe, we hear unrelenting calls for rearmament and military buildups.
And now, as the countries take stock of their own dwindling human resources for the military, many nations are turning to conscription as a solution.
In the UK, embattled PM Rishi Sunak, on the eve of an expected massive defeat at the polls by the opposition Labour, has said that twelve months of mandatory national service would be reintroduced by the Conservatives in the unlikely event that they win the general election.
BBC reported:
“Eighteen-year-olds would be able to apply for one of 30,000 full-time military placements or volunteering one weekend a month carrying out a community service.”
Sunak said that backing compulsory service would help foster the ‘national spirit’.
“The Conservatives want the first teenagers to take part in a pilot from September 2025, with details to be worked out by a Royal Commission. The armed forces placements would allow young people to learn about cyber security, logistics, procurement, or civil response operations.”
Non-military volunteering would involve 25 days of work with organizations such as the fire service, the police and the National Health System.
“Mr. Sunak said: ‘This is a great country but generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world. I will bring in a new model of national service to create a shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country’.”
Labour called the plans ‘desperate’ and ‘unfunded’.
“Labour said: ‘This is another desperate £2.5 billion unfunded commitment from a Tory Party which already crashed the economy, sending mortgages rocketing, and now they’re spoiling for more. This is not a plan – it’s a review which could cost billions and is only needed because the Tories hollowed out the armed forces to their smallest size since Napoleon’.”
The UK is of course not the only European country to debate conscription, with the war in Ukraine leading the continent to re-evaluate the policy.
Euronews reported:
“Tucked on Russia’s border via the small enclave of Kaliningrad, Lithuania recently began drafting reforms to its conscription system, which could see people living and studying abroad called up.
One option in the proposals is to enlist recruits voluntarily for one-month training sessions every summer for three years. They would in theory then be ready for battle.”
France in 2019 launched a form of ‘soft conscription’, with young people offered voluntary civic service.
“One reason Europe is resorting to conscription – where men and women are typically legally obliged to fight – is that conventional recruitment drives aren’t working.”
And of course, Germany has joined the war bandwagon.
El Pais reported:
“Germany’s military rearmament, in addition to a representing a major financial outlay, also involves solving a pressing problem: the shortage of soldiers in the army. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been discussing possible models to revive compulsory military service for some time and now more and more political figures, both from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the conservative CDU/CSU, are preparing the ground for what already looks like a probable reintroduction of conscription.”
Pistorius said that to abandon compulsory military service in 2011 was a mistake.
“’I am convinced that Germany needs a form of military conscription’, [Pistorius] said during a speech at Johns Hopkins University. For the Social Democrat, it is a necessary step to ‘ensure military stability’ at a time when the war in Ukraine threatens Europe’s security.
The German army, with a regular strength of 180,000 soldiers, has become too small. This is a reality that the government has been warning about for some time. The recent restructuring of the army to make it “war-ready” also involves increasing the number of troops. The government has calculated as a target a figure of at least 203,000 soldiers to ensure full defensive readiness. Added to this is the fact that 20,000 new soldiers a year are needed just to compensate for those who leave the service. Plans put in place in the past to reach a level of 203,000 personnel were unsuccessful. In addition, there are not enough reservists to meet requirements in the case of emergencies.”
The conscription plans are expected to be announced by June.
“’It is important that we have an army that is effective and can fulfill its tasks. How exactly this can be guaranteed now and, in the future, will be discussed in the coming weeks and months’, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. The obligation could then apply to some 600,000 Germans who reach adulthood each year.”
It’s unclear if Germany can muster the funds for these plans.
If all that was not concerning enough, the European People’s Party (EPP) leader Manfred Weber has now defended the idea of an Europe-wide ‘general conscription’ as a part of broader plan to create an EU Army, common missile defense shield, and a nuclear umbrella to “deter” Russia.
There aren’t many sane voices in Europe, but there is still Conservative Champion Viktor Orbán.
Sputnik reported:
“‘The idea of a compulsory European army is insane’, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban told the Patrióta YouTube channel on May 26, commenting on European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber’s proposal to introduce EU-wide conscription.
‘We don’t want someone else to decide where our young men are deployed’. Less than half of EU members have compulsory military services in place.
Eleven European countries have various types of compulsory military service: Austria, Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Three of them – Austria, Switzerland and Cyprus – aren’t NATO member states while Switzerland is also not an EU nation.”
