That Was The Week That Was 20-24 March 2023
A Single European Military Sky
For well over than a decade – it feels like for ever – we have been told that as much as the States of Europe would love, love, a single European sky, the military will just not consent. All the other issues can be sorted out – it is just money, after all – but the Council says, solemn-faced, we cannot get our air forces to agree. You must understand, they intone. Sovereignty, you see, at the end of the day is about defence. Defence, no-one can question that. The chaps in uniform are simply impossible to deal with, says the Minister of [INSERT COUNTRY NAME HERE], with the ANSP slightly out-of-shot, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Time after time, over the top goes the Commission and the Parliament and time after time, the Council and the national capital cities stay in their trenches, machine guns at the ready, to repel the attack. Sovereignty, you understand. This has never been a European Union, or European Commission issue, it is a Member State issue. All that screaming and pouting and finger-pointing we are blessed with in Brussels is of no impact. Indeed, it is to miss the (finger) point. National ANSPs have been hiding behind their military, refusing to make any change that might possibly be to their detriment but for the benefit of the travelling public or the environment.
So the announcement this week, the week that was, that the air forces of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are to operate as one joint force is a bit embarrassing. Just a bit. In the sense of hugely. Apparently, what is stopping the management of airspace across Europe is that it will stop our air forces asserting their sovereignty, except, oh, wait, at the military level, which is, to remind you, the first and most basic level of obligation of any government, we do not believe that. The entire Single Sky Committee, a hotbed of prevarication and saying yes when you actually mean no, is now looking more than a little hypocritical.
The more you think about the new grouping, the more gormless the civilians in charge of making European airspace more efficient, less environmentally damaging, and safer appear. The military are happy to unite both within and without the European Union and within and without NATO, (at least for the moment) but getting together to make travelling easier? No, sorry. Cannot be done. Sovereignty, you understand.
Well, frankly, I do not. I do understand that there might be some vested interests involved. I am prepared to bet there are some egos involved, but sovereignty? Leave that to the folk whose job it is to defend the realm, not penpushers in Brussels and in capital cities. Oh, wait, no, the solders are fine with it. So, tell me again, why aren’t we?