Six times Remainers denied an EU army would happen

One of the points of discussion which dominated British politics in the Brexit era was the possibility of the formation of an ‘EU army’. During the referendum campaign and for years afterwards, Remainers and ‘People’s Vote’ campaigners repeatedly claimed that there was no serious chance of establishing an EU army because the upper echelons of the Commission had no interest in the idea – despite top Eurocrats being so open about their goals.

But now the fall of Afghanistan and the sudden realisation of Europe’s dependancy on America has brought the issue to the fore once again. On Thursday EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell announced that the withdrawal will ‘catalyse’ the EU to establish its own army, comments which follow in the wake of similar remarks by Ursula von der Leyen prior to her taking up the presidency of the European Commission.

With such winds of change blowing through the continent’s defence ministries, Mr Steerpike thought it would be a good idea to list seven times Remainers dismissed the possibility of the creation of an EU army…

Jonathan Lis, 2019