Warsaw — Radosław Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, has proposed the creation of a "European legion" composed of soldiers from EU member states and candidate countries, a move that would advance European defense integration without waiting for a full federal army.
The force would begin as a brigade-level unit financed through the EU budget and report to the EU's Political and Security Committee, according to Notes from Poland. Sikorski argued the proposal offers a realistic alternative to more ambitious but politically unfeasible plans for a unified European army.
"Talking about a federal army is pointless, because it is unrealistic, because national armies will not merge," Sikorski told reporters. The legion would focus on addressing lower-level regional threats in North Africa and the Balkans, rather than attempting to match NATO's collective defense capability against Russia.
The proposal comes as European nations grapple with fundamental questions about their security architecture. Russia's invasion of Ukraine shattered assumptions about European stability, while recent tensions between Washington and European allies over President Trump's Greenland remarks have raised fresh doubts about American commitment to European defense.
In Poland, as across Central Europe, history is never far from the surface—and neither is the memory of occupation. Poland currently spends 4.8% of its GDP on defense, the highest relative spending in NATO, and maintains the alliance's third-largest military by personnel. For Warsaw, European defense autonomy represents both strategic necessity and historical imperative.
The proposal has drawn a mixed response from European leaders. Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, expressed skepticism about creating separate European military structures alongside NATO, warning of potential duplication. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte similarly cautioned against establishing parallel defense frameworks.
Yet Sikorski's intervention reflects a broader shift in European thinking. What France has advocated for years—greater European strategic autonomy—now finds support from front-line states like Poland that historically preferred tight American security guarantees. The war in Ukraine has fundamentally altered the calculus.
The foreign minister's proposal stops well short of the "European army" concept that has circulated in Brussels for decades. Instead, it offers a pragmatic first step: a deployable force capable of handling contingencies where full NATO mobilization would be disproportionate, funded collectively and commanded through existing EU structures.
Whether the European legion materializes remains uncertain. Previous efforts at EU defense integration have foundered on national sovereignty concerns and overlapping responsibilities with NATO. But the proposal signals that Poland—long NATO's most Atlanticist member in Eastern Europe—now sees European defense cooperation not as a luxury but as a strategic requirement.
The coming months will reveal whether other European capitals share Warsaw's assessment, or whether Sikorski's proposal joins the long list of European defense initiatives that failed to launch.
