ACT TO ESTABLISH THE EUROPEAN CORPS

[Inquista]

ACT TO ESTABLISH THE EUROPEAN CORPS

Proposed by Commissioner Antoni Reynels (Inquista) :: May 26th, 2020

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PREAMBLE

The purpose of this Act is to establish a voluntary military corps to protect the European Union and our allies from foreign invasion, to liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions, or take offensive action against belligerent threats to the European Union.

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SECTION I. COMPOSITION

I. The European Corps, hereafter referred to as the Eurocorps, shall consist solely of volunteer units contributed by member states of the European Union.
II. A volunteer unit needs to be approved by the Eurocorps Commander before they can serve the Eurocorps.
III. Once a volunteer unit has been approved by the Eurocorps Commander, they shall receive training from the Eurocorps in order to be prepared for combat operations.
IV. Each Eurocorps unit shall be commanded by a national of their member state of origin, who shall be a military officer of a certain rank that is deemed acceptable by the Eurocorps Commander.

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SECTION II. DEPLOYMENT

I. The Eurocorps may be deployed defensively to protect the European Union and its allies, or to defend and liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions. The Eurocorps may be deployed offensively if the target meets institutional criteria as a belligerent threat to the European Union.

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SECTION III. STRUCTURE

I. The operations and administration of the Eurocorps shall be overseen by the Eurocorps Commander.
II. The Eurocorps Commander shall be appointed by the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs for the remainder of the Foreign Affairs Commissioner's eight-month term.
III. The Eurocorps Commander shall serve in their position until the end of the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs’s term, or until they resign from office.
IV. The Eurocorps Commander may delegate and appoint Eurocorps Officers to undertake certain duties or responsibilities. The specifics of these duties or responsibilities are decided on a case-by-case basis by the Eurocorps Commander.
V. The Eurocops Commander may dismiss any Eurocorps Officer or Eurocorps force from duty for any given reason.

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SECTION IV. FUNDING AND EQUIPMENT

I. The Eurocorps shall be entirely funded by the European Union and its budget.
II. The Eurocorps shall procure its own equipment and shall receive enough funding to adequately equip, train, transport and operate all its forces.
III. Member states which contribute forces to the Eurocorps will not be responsible for equipping their volunteer forces once they are in service to the Eurocorps. However, once a force is no longer in service to the Eurocorps, then that force shall surrender all equipment back to the Eurocorps.

[Inquista]

Debate on this Act starts NOW and will be open until 23:00 GMT May 29th, 2020.

Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista

[Leagio]

Councilor Francis Plessis of Leagio stands up to speak

"First, i would like to say that this is interesting bill presented to the Council. Second, i would say that the Commonwealth would be supportive on the passing of the Act. But there are some questions that must be raised."

"The Act ensures that the region is fully protected by a EU mandated military force. It ensure that, as said for the Leagioan National Motto, there is 'Common Defense For All." But the issue is that the Act provides no ability for nations to recall its volunteers, especially if they are need for an emergency with their nation of origin. Say that for example that a nation is under going a rebellion or a revolution, the nations calls for the mobilization of its forces, but cannot get them all in service because they are used by the Eurocorps. Then the Commander of the European Corps decides to not intervene. What then? Will nations not be able to recall their units to save their internal stability?"

"Another issue with the bill is that how will the Eurocorps Volunteer units be able to supply themselves? Does the nations of the EU have to then provide transportation? The Bill does not seem to have a structure that ensures that it can good on the offensive, especially if for example, none of the nations are willing to provide vessels or planes to transport the troops or supplies to the theatre of war?"

[Inquista]

Speaker Firoux nodded and gestured for Commissioner Antoni Reynels to speak.

"You raise valid concerns, Councillor Plessis, especially in regard to your second question, which would be worth discussing in-depth.

As for the first question, there is nothing in this legislation which states or prevents member states from withdrawing their voluntary forces from the Eurocorps. It merely states that the operations and administration of the Eurocorps shall be overseen by the Eurocorps Commander. If member states withdraw their voluntary forces from the Eurocorps, then, well, they're just simply no longer part of the Eurocorps. It's also worth noting that while the Eurocorps operations are overseen by the Eurocorps Commander, each Eurocorps unit is individually commanded by a national of their member state of origin.

As for your second question, this is probably something that requires addressing and robust Council discussion. Typically, as is the case with the European Relief Force and with most peacekeeping norms, it is expected that forces supply themselves. So, yes, the member state would need to provide transportation. To be clear, the legislation states that volunteer units need to be contributed by the member states, and they're presumably functioning, already put-together military units. By volunteers, it is not meant that individual people are independently and voluntarily signing up to join the organization. They're functioning military units volunteered by a state. If the member state cannot provide vessels or planes for the transportation of these units, then they're simply not prepared nor have much business being part of the Eurocorps anyway, but that's something for the Eurocrops Commander to decide.

However, it's probably worth mentioning and clarifying in the legislation how the organization ought to be equipped. It might also be worth having the European Union fund the Eurocorps generously enough so that member states won't have to equip the units themselves, and that the Eurocorps has enough funding on its own to procure equipment. It would be beneficial for the Eurocorps to not only have standardized quipment, but also high quality equipment. This will be costly, but it is something for the Council to decide, not me."

Commissioner Reynels seated himself as Speaker Firoux rose to address the council.

"Having a well-equipped Eurocorps would be costly, and would likely take up quite a large proportion of the European budget, but if there's one bill that is actually worth footing, then it will be this one. Inquista is the largest contributor of the European budget, and we believe it is in our best interest to see the Eurocorps well-funded. Having the Eurocorps equip itself would hopefully remedy some of the concerns that
Councillor Plessis rightfully brought up. I will propose an amendment on that matter, but I would like to first hear what my fellow colleagues have to say about this."

[Kingdom of Reitzmag]

Councilor van Allen then stood up to speak

"My dear fellow legislators in this European Council, we have been disrupted by uprisings, coups, and revolutions in the past few months. And we have not yet fixed these internal situations. But now, we're focusing more on our external affairs and unified security!"

"My friends, we must understand that the Eurocorps will not be effective if Europe is currently divided. We have to fix our situations first internally before we focus on this kind of matter. Another problem we face is that how we would mobilize our forces from foreign missions in case of an emergency within our region. And not all nations have enough budget for very much equipment."

"I also agree to Coun. Plessis that we will not be able to take command on our volunteer forces in case of need because the commander doesn't want. This would be much undemocratic and a serious threat to each of our national sovereignty."

"One more thing is that the procurement of equipment would be hard as to which some nations don't have enough funds to maintain their volunteer forces as well as their equipment. Even though, I have received calls yesterday from RAE Systems and other defense companies in Reitzmag that they are willing to provide substantial equipment for both land, sea, and air travel and combat."

"Finally, the words on Section 1 Paragraph 4 is also undemocratic and that I suggest that the appointment of unit commanders shall be delegated to the governments of each member-state. This would help devolve some responsibilities of the Eurocorps Commander and lessen his/her burden."

"Over all, I want to raise the fact that this act must be amended accordingly with a more detailed composition and proper specification of the structure as well as the roles and responsibilities of each member."

[Inquista]

Councillor van Allen, if you want to go and "fix" internal situations, go ahead, nobody is stopping you. Please go ahead and do it. I'm not sure why legislating on external security or "unified security" is such a preposterous thing. Both things can be done at the same time. Both are important.

Commissioner Reynels already very politely explained that the volunteer forces aren't being held hostage by the Eurocorps Commander. They can of course be withdrawn.

If the volunteer forces don't have equipment, then they obviously shouldn't join the Eurocorps in the first place, because they're simply not equipped enough to fight, and they're also actually endangering the Eurocorps itself by becoming an unnecessary burden. There's a reason why we wouldn't, say, be asking farmers to join the Eurocorps. I doubt the Eurocorps would want them in the first place. This is such a silly argument. If a member state doesn't have properly armed and equipped forces to contribute, then they simply shouldn't contribute. The Eurocrops is fully voluntary for a reason. However, as I mentioned earlier, I support the idea of supplying the Eurocorps with enough money so that they can procure equipment for themselves, so this wouldn't even be an issue.

To your second last point, Councillor van Allen, the legislation states that each unit will be headed by a national of their member state of origin - it almost certainly has to be someone chosen by their state's government, otherwise who else would they be volunteering in the first place - that is of a certain military rank that is deemed acceptable by the Eurocorps Commander.

As for your last point, it is not up to us to decide how to structure the Eurocorps, that is for them to decide. We seriously don't need to be carving into legislation the roles and responsibilities of each member, which would result in absolute chaos, as the Eurocorps Commander couldn't delegate anything new nor be flexible in their management during a time of chaos and conflict, and they would need to go through an at least a 6-day legislative process of amending this act every single time they amend or create new roles. What a horrific nightmare that would be, and what an absolute detriment that would be to the Eurocorps and its effectiveness.

Also, it's funny how you mentioned something being undemocratic. In order to be part of the European Council, you need to be an democratically elected member. Since Mr. Hufton passed away after the Elected and Accountable Council Act was enacted, and you came to power through legal succession and not a national election, you are not even a valid Council member. So, security, please take this man to the public gallery. You will be barred from this discussion. You can can join future Council proceedings once you have been elected in a way that satisfies the Elected and Accountable Council Act.

Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor of Inquista

[Spain]

Councillor Tusk, being surprised about what happened, stood up and started to talk

Good afternoon all and thank you Commissioner Reynels for your great work on this act. I want to say that it's a very good idea, and also, I want to highlight the voluntary contribution to the Eurocorps, because you could have made it compulsory, but no, you've made it voluntary and that's a fact nobody can deny. Section 1 seems very good to me and I think that to the rest of the Spanish politicians.

I also agree on the deployment, like said in Section II. This is highly important to defend our region, and also we must help those that help the European Union, because they are our allies. I really think that our allies must be kept in order to establish good relationships between the European Union and foreign regions around the world. And I also agree on Section III, there's nothing wrong with it.

But now, I'll like to answer "Councillor" van Allen, who as Councillor Firoux said, hasn't been democratically elected, so he is not a councillor itself. We all knew that the Kingdom of Reitzmag didn't like Commissioner Juncker, he barely got any votes, and let me doubt about if those votes were legal, but that's not the matter. I know that Commissioner Juncker is hardly-working to stop this coups and we'll need to wait until the Heads of Governments meeting that he's soon hosting. But then, you've said that we need to fix Europe first. Well, you should start fixing your own country before fixing the European Union, by the way, the European Progressive Alliance Commissioners are working on it now for sure.

But moreover, you say some things on this act are undemocratic. Mr. van Allen, can you consider yourself as a democrat when you haven't beel elected by the people of Reitzmag? Is it democratic to break European laws like the Elected and Acountable Act? I'll leave you a suggestion: Before saying someone is undemocratic, first look at yourself and say: Am I a democratic person? Once you have asked that question, and if the answer was "Yes, I am", then you can say someone is undemocratic. But if the answer is: "No, I'm not", then you should start fixing your own problems before looking at the others'.

Thank you.

Donald D. Tusk
Councillor for Spain

[Leagio]

Councilor Francis Plessis of Leagio stands up to speak

"I would like to thank Councilor Firouz and Comissioner Reynels for providing clarification on the bill. In addition, I think the Commonwealth would currently be supportive of the measure to have a well-funded and supplied Eurocorps. The question of whether or not if the Commonwealth could aid in providing logistical support will be an issue for the President and the National Congress to decide under the Leagio Constitution of 1904. However, i do have another question about the Act. Right now, the Commonwealth Ground Forces are currently on watch-mode meaning that they are to be on the lookout for any activity that wishes to eliminate or kill the delegates of the On-going Constitutional Convention being held in a secret location within Leagio, which is not martial law. Now suppose that the Act is passed, is there minium of what a member-state could send to a volunteer? Like if Leagio at the moment can not send a Division? Then could the Commonwealth volunteer a regiment or a battalion for example?"

[Pravoslaviya]

Cllr Tupac Shakur stood to speak

"Thank you, Commissioner Reynels, for introducing this Bill. I fully support the creation of the Eurocorps and the general principles of this Bill. Our region is divided, yes. Our region has internal problems, yes. But we can only address those problems and Make Europe Great Again if we are secure on the outside."

"I believe that Section II would benefit from some clarification, and perhaps, some improvement. The term 'enemies of the European Union' is barely defined at all, and I'd like to see, if possible, some process set out for identifying an enemy of the region. I appreciate decisions will have to be made quickly, and I'm open to suggestions about how that can be codified and subject to scrutiny, perhaps after the fact."

"Moreover, I do not agree that all Nazi or fascist regions should be automatically classed as enemies of the European Union. I don't think it's wise in any case to declare hostility against any region that doesn't already have hostile relations with us, let alone do so on a blanket basis. And we know that Nazis and fascists tend to be quite belligerent, and may see this as a green light to attack us."

"Therefore, I'll propose one amendment now, with another to come later:"

Section II, Clause I, leave out "including nazi/fascist regions".

"I'd also like to request that the debate period be extended."

[Inquista]

Speaker Firoux rose to speak.

"Sure thing, I will extend the debate for a further 72 hours until 03:00 GMT June 2nd, 2020.

Councillor Plessis, that is a good question. I suppose that is for the Eurocorps to decide once they've been created. Only the Eurocorops themselves would know what sort of forces they needed or were lacking at any given moment. I'm not sure how picky the Eurocorps Commander will be, but presumably, they would want to accept whatever they feasibly could. However, again, I feel like that is for them to decide.

I agree with Councillor Shakur, and believe that the term 'enemies of the European Union' is a big vague. Instead of elaborating on it, I feel that we should just eliminate the term. Do we really want to have enemies, and should we be invading them? I want to hear from the Commissioner as to why fascist and Nazi regions were specified."

Speaker Firoux seated himself as Commissioner Reynels stood to speak.

"For clarification, I specified Nazi and fascist regions because the overwhelming amount of those regions are actively in the business of invading other regions. As these Nazi and fascist regions tend to be incredibly militant and imperialistic, and due to their political ideology, they're sometimes at the receiving end of being invaded themselves by coalition forces of democratic regions such as our Grey Warden allies, other anti-imperialist regions or anti-fascist regions.

While the European Union may not be enemies of any particular Nazi or fascist region, I think it would still be in our best interest to support these coalition efforts to stamp out fascism and Nazism, as well as to permanently put their efforts to invade other regions to an end. This may put the European Union a bit too much on the map, and yes, it could green light fascist attacks against us. However, I will say that the vast majority of regions which work to defend other regions have already signed anti-fascist proclamations, and they'd all likely advise us that Nazi and fascist regions attack regions indiscriminately anyway, regardless of what our attitude towards them is."

Speaker Firoux nodded as began.

"I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the European Union having a list of enemies, and I'm not sure if I would even want to send our Eurocorps forces to attack them. I do agree, though, that if were to have enemies, that the list should begin with Nazi and fascist regions. If our allies are organizing coalition strikes against these regions, then I believe it should be our duty to support these efforts if we can. But I'd prefer if our list of enemies began and ended there. For these regions, I think we should just eliminate the phrase 'enemies of the European Union'.

Here are my two amendments."

Amendment II
SECTION II. DEPLOYMENT
I. The Eurocorps may only be deployed to defend the European Union and its allies, to defend and liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions, or to attack enemies of the European Union, including or to attack Nazi or fascist regions.

Amendment III
SECTION IV. FUNDING AND EQUIPMENT
I. The Eurocorps shall be entirely funded by the European Union and its budget.
II. The Eurocorps shall procure its own equipment and shall receive enough funding to adequately equip, train, transport and operate all its forces.
III. Member states which contribute forces to the Eurocorps will not be responsible for equipping their volunteer forces once they are in service to the Eurocorps. However, once a force is no longer in service to the Eurocorps, then that force shall surrender all equipment back to the Eurocorps.

[Leagio]

Councilor Francis Plessis of Leagio stands up to speak

"I approve of the amendments. But i do have another question and this is one that the President of the Commonwealth wanted me to ask. But does the act allow defensive military organizations to volunteer units? Say for example the recently established Allied Defense Organization, also called ADO? Could they theoretically be allowed to be active with the Eurocorps with a common goal?"

[Inquista]

The purpose of the Eurocorps is to be its own institution, not to answer to other military institutions. The legislation identifies member states as contributors to its forces, not other military organizations.

Antoni Reynels
Commissioner of Foreign Affairs

[Duxburian Union]

Councillor Greene rose to speak, for the first time in quite a while.

The Union of Duxburian Dominions has a long tradition of service in defense of the region and is thus proud to support the establishment of Eurocorps. Furthermore, we support funding its equipment and missions out of the European budget. While nations must retain key elements of responsibility for their contributions, we shouldn't have a bunch of different standards of varying quality. The institution needs some basic level of standardization if it is to succeed as a fighting force. That said, those standards should be left to them to decide.

Like it or not, the European Union actually already has enemies arrayed against us. The Union of Duxburian Dominions has been a member-state for about 15 years now and has witnessed 6 or 7 major assaults on the region, all of which failed. In one particularly egregious incident, forces from 32 nations in a wide invader coalition attempted to takeover the region, including forces from 2 regions we held embassies with.

Historically, the burden of defending the region has disproportionately fallen upon the shoulders of a handful of prominent Europeans, such as Benevolent Thomas, Deadeye Jack, and in recent times, Vincent Drake. They have all engaged nazis and fascists in direct military conflict for years, so it's not like nazis and fascists don't know about us. We are very much on their radar. Our situation is less like "us considering a list of enemies" and more like "enemies already have us on lists". You can bury your head in the proverbial sand, but that won't make these hostile forces magically go away.

That said, the most practical approach would be not to automatically target any nazi or fascist or invader region that comes along, it would be to allow discretion to take offensive action on a case-by-case basis. We also can't be left toothless by a clause that prohibits all offensive action, that would just be inviting free hostility. So, I offer an amendment:

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SECTION II. DEPLOYMENT
I. The Eurocorps may only be deployed to defend defensively to protect the European Union and its allies, or to defend and liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions. The Eurocorps may be deployed offensively if the target meets institutional criteria as a belligerent threat to the European Union.

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What the criteria are can be formally published by Eurocorps and subject to approval by the Internal Affairs Commissioner. The Council retains the ability to serve as another check on what Eurocorps can and cannot do.

To address Councillor Plessis' question, military organizations such as the ADO have purely intra-regional scope while Eurocorps has purely inter-regional scope. Organizations like the ADO physically/literally can't participate in inter-regional missions the way individual member-states can, so it only makes sense to permit member-states to contribute.

Wesley Greene
Councillor of the Duxburian Union

[Inquista]

It has been without a doubt that the Duxburian Union has played a very central role in defending the European Union from foreign invasion for well over a decade now. As such, I am inclined to listen and heed to Councillor Greene on the matter. I find his amendment on deployment to be the most satisfactory one yet, and such, I withdraw my amendment on the matter and replace it with this amendment, which only makes some minor cosmetic changes to the preamble.

Amendment III
PREAMBLE
The purpose of this Act is to establish a voluntary military corps to protect the European Union and our allies from foreign invasion, to liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions, or to aid global efforts to combat fascism. take offensive action against belligerent threats to the European Union.

Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista

[Inquista]

The discussion period has now come to an end. There are FOUR amendments to be voted upon. These are the proposed amendments:

Amendment I - Proposed by Cllr. Shakur
SECTION II. DEPLOYMENT
I. The Eurocorps may only be deployed to defend the European Union and its allies, to defend and liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions, or to attack enemies of the European Union including nazi/fascist regions.

Amendment II - Proposed by Cllr. Firoux
SECTION IV. FUNDING AND EQUIPMENT
I. The Eurocorps shall be entirely funded by the European Union and its budget.
II. The Eurocorps shall procure its own equipment and shall receive enough funding to adequately equip, train, transport and operate all its forces.
III. Member states which contribute forces to the Eurocorps will not be responsible for equipping their volunteer forces once they are in service to the Eurocorps. However, once a force is no longer in service to the Eurocorps, then that force shall surrender all equipment back to the Eurocorps.

Amendment III - Proposed by Cllr. Greene
SECTION II. DEPLOYMENT
I. The Eurocorps may only be deployed to defend defensively to protect the European Union and its allies, or to defend and liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions. The Eurocorps may be deployed offensively if the target meets institutional criteria as a belligerent threat to the European Union.

Amendment IV - Proposed by Cllr. Firoux
PREAMBLE
The purpose of this Act is to establish a voluntary military corps to protect the European Union and our allies from foreign invasion, to liberate regions which have been invaded or occupied by other regions, or to aid global efforts to combat fascism. take offensive action against belligerent threats to the European Union.

Please carefully read each amendment before voting. Amendments I and III clash with one another, so please be careful to choose between one of the two.

Voting on amendments begins NOW and will last until 16:45 GMT June 5th, 2020.

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I vote FOR Amendments II, III and IV. I vote AGAINST Amendment I.

Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista

[Leagio]

I vote FOR amendments IV, III, and II
I vote Against amendment I

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Councilor Francis Plessis of Leagio

[Duxburian Union]

I vote for Amendments II, III, and IIII. I vote against Amendment I.

Wesley Greene
Councillor of the Duxburian Union

[Kingdom of Reitzmag]

After being announced as a re-elected councilor, van Allen immediately rushed to the EU Council Chamber.

I vote FOR Amendments II and III
I vote AGAINST Amendments I and IV

Friedrich van Allen
Councilor, Kingdom of Reitzmag

[Spain]

I vote FOR amendments II, III and IV.
I vote AGAINST amendment I.

Donald D. Tusk
Councillor for Spain

[Nofoaga]

I vote FOR all Amendments.

Mrs. Azaya Dubecq
EU Councilor for Nofoaga