Blake 0 Posted January 31, 2004 Just recently Swedish premier Göran Persson stated that 'It would be hard for Sweden to stay neutral if any of the EU countries would face attack'. Does this mean Sweden is warming up to the Italy's past suggestion of rather loose individual defence guarantees between EU countries? Should all EU countries follow the suit? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
llauma 0 Posted January 31, 2004 His statement doesn't say anything... It could mean that they will have to work hard to stay out of the conflict or it could mean they they propably wouldn't be able to stand and watch which would mean that they would have to get involved. Sweden has to always be so neutral that they can't even be neutral 'cause that would mean that sweden would have to take the neutral side and sweden don't wanna take anyones side. They have a uniqe word for it called "lagom" which they are so proud of. Lagom is their choise when you can't decide. It's not yes, it's not no.. It's not small, it's nog big.. It's something vague in between. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
denoir 0 Posted January 31, 2004 The thing is that in the proposed constitution, there is a paragraph about mutual defence stating that if another EU country is attacked, the other EU countries have to pitch in. And that one is more or less a no-brainer. This is also what a majority of the politicians support. The second bigger question is if and when there will be a common defence policy. Germany, France, Britain and a couple of more are already constructing the foundation for a future joint force. Sweden, being a coward as usual, has not really formed an opinion on it (as usual). We had a topic on it not so long ago: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....9;hl=eu Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blake 0 Posted January 31, 2004 Quote[/b] ]It's something vague in between. I have a faint reflection of that term...  Sorry I really tried the search first but couldn't come up with that older thread...so you may lock this up. Hey nobody's calling Swedes cowards here  The other nordic country you-know-which stays silent as a rock as usual, maybe that's courage then if you will  So when is the deadline on final opinions in this issue - will it have to be unanomyous decision between the countries or will some countries be granted with special 'independent defence' only? If this some kind of European Brigade/Division/Corps is set up in my opinion it would probably be bad to have companies/batallions set up from single nationality, because then if crisis would emerge (heaven forbid) member countries would argue 'whose boys are going to bear the brunt' so dividing them to smaller detachments would be better. Like one company rather formed of several nationalities, one platoon from one country for example and company CO would just be from anywhere, but being best man for the job. These troops would naturally have to be composed and trained together rather frequently so if situation developes they would function fluently despite nationality/operating procedure barriers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EiZei 0 Posted January 31, 2004 Considering that I cant remember the last time when Sweden had participated in a war their STFU foreign policy seems to work well enough. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blake 0 Posted January 31, 2004 Quote[/b] ]The other nordic country you-know-which stays silent as a rock as usual, maybe that's courage then if you will That's not reference to Sweden... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ex-RoNiN 0 Posted January 31, 2004 We already have a thread for this, as denoir pointed out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
