Dateline 6th July 2004

INTRODUCTION The German media company Bertelsmann is one of the most powerful advocates of the eurofederal "German Europe" superstate. The company was also one of the most important political collaborators with the Nazis - printing much Nazi propaganda and in particular publications for the Nazi Armed Services. This report from our friends at german-foreign-policy.com reports on Bertelsmann's latest "strategy paper" for the EU's military power both in Europe and across the world. The high speed networks they recommend are the modern equivalent of Hitler's autobahns without which the "Blitzkrieg" against Poland and later the invasion of Russia would not have been possible.

BONN/BRUSSELS (Correspondent's report) - The high speed network of the European railroads shall be made available for war transportation by the EU. In addition, the EU must arrange for commandeering cargo space of all types since that will be required for world wide military operations. At the same time, definite increases of military personnel and expenditures for all EU members are unavoidable. Included are arsenals for ,,nuclear, chemical and biological" warfare. These as well as other measures for the radical militarisation of the EU are listed in an current ,,strategy paper" from the German Bertelsmann Foundation. A ,,trirectoire" or triumvirate consisting of the German, French and British military is supposed to take over the preparations for and conduct of war.

This publication is titled ,,A European Defense Strategy"1) and has been produced by the ,,Policy Research Group" of the foundation.2) It recommends military and paramilitary measures enabling the EU to participate in ,,missions on a greater scale, over a larger radius, with greater fighting strength and extending over a longer period of time". With this, they differentiate between an internal and external line-up for wars which are to be conducted ,,preventatively" (,,robust preventive missions, possibly anywhere in the world").

Emergency
An ,,EU defence council", guiding the military as well as civilian-military measures in all EU countries, would preside over the planned attacks. Thus, the Bertelsmann ,,research group" pleads for a supra national EU emergency body which would be outside of the control of all parliaments and would have the power to abrogate national constitutional requirements. Specifically stated, the operative leadership of emergency measures would be in the hands of a ,,triumvirate consisting of Great Britain, France and Germany".

Military Camp
Besides placing civilian cargo space as well as civilian railroad networks (,,to bring EU powers quickly close to the battle zone, i.e.. the Italian Adriatic coast or a port (…) i.e. from southern England to Marseille"), under a continental ,,EU joint intelligence committee" which, according to the draft, would be working with the ,,EU Security Council". Their task would be to identify disruptive activities within the EU-states. The internal deployment of the military is taken for granted (,,support for civilian authorities in emergencies"). Furthermore it is stated that the police powers of the EU members must be organized in paramilitary form so that, at least, 10,000 men are, ,,like the guardia civil and the carabineri" , available for deployment.

War Economy
According to the Bertelsmann ,,research group" the EU has 1.7 million soldiers at its disposal but the quota of 170,000 which can be mobilized for military activities which violate international law (,,missions of the kind being undertaken in Iraq today") is insufficient. Likewise the EU arsenal neither contains enough tank busting weapons (ATGM) nor rockets of the more advanced ,,Patriot" type (PAC-3). Necessary as well is the urgent armament with unmanned digital explosive systems which can hit the enemy from the air and can differentiate between one's own and the enemy's troops. The ,,research group" recommends that the weapons of this future armament should be exclusively produced by European manufacturers (,,buy European first strategy") in order to become independent of the USA. The Bertelsmann group demands that the necessary finances should be raised by substantial increases in the national budgets of all EU members (Germany: from an actual 24.4 billion Euro to 42.3 billion Euro in the future).

The ,,strategy paper" for which the Bertelsmann Foundation is responsible, poses an, until now, unrivaled cataloguing of military and civilian-military measures which, in essence, would eliminate the national constitutional rights of the EU member states and replace it with a dictatorial regime. Furthermore, the publication advocates plans which approve acceptance or arrangements for armed attacks on so-called ,,failing states", as well as illegal occupation of foreign territories.

1) Bertelsmann Foundation: A European Defence Strategy. Written by Julian Lindley-French and Franco Algieri. Advised by Thomas Bauer, Yves Boyer, Jani Emmanouilidis, Tuomas Forsberg, Stefani Weiss and Rob de Wijk. Gütersloh 2004; www.cap.uni-muenchen.de. For extracts see Mehr Krieg
2) on Bertelsmann Stiftung cf. Independent Armament for ,,necessary power base" ; The will to world power and ,,Downfall or ascent to world power"