Everything You Need to Know About Weber's Compulsory Conscription Plans

With just one week until next Sunday's European Parliament elections, the vote, as well as discussions on introducing a Europe-wide compulsory conscription - a topic that could already feature on the new EP's agenda - are approaching. We have gathered everything you need to know about the controversial idea proposed by Manfred Weber, President of the European People's Party, and other pro-war Western European leaders.

German soldiers at the Klietz training ground in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on February 23, 2024 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Hannibal Hanschke)

In the Baltic country, all men aged 18 to 27 are required to enlist for 11 months of service, while military service is voluntary for women.

In the region, the introduction of conscription has emerged in recent years in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, with the occupation of Crimea in 2014 being a milestone in this regard.

Lithuania decided in favor of mandatory military service in 2015, citing the changed geopolitical situation and the low number of armed forces personnel. In Estonia, the service period is 8 or 11 months for men aged 18 to 27, during which, according to the defense forces' statement, they "acquire the basic knowledge necessary to act as professionals in wartime military units." In Finland, lawmakers recently decided on the mandatory military service period, setting at 165, 255, or 347 days.

Polish soldiers serving in Latvia as part of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) operation fire PT-91 tanks during the Silver Arrow exercise at the Adazi base in Latvia on September 29, 2023.
(Photo: MTI/EPA/Valda Kalnina)

According to information made available on the army's website, all men are conscripted from the age of 18. The mandatory military service can be completed until the age of 30, after which they are considered reservists - like all citizens who have previously undergone training.

Sweden is an exception among EU member states: Stockholm is the only EU capital to mandate military service for both men and women.

In Denmark, 18-year-olds must serve for 4 to 12 months, which can be substituted with community service. There is also a concession that those who wish to continue their education after high school can defer mandatory military service until the age of 25. In Greece, military service is mandatory for those aged 19 to 45 and typically lasts 9 to 12 months, depending on the branch of the military. In Austria, a 2013 referendum saw more than 59 percent of the population vote in favor of conscription: all men must serve in the army for eight months, which can be substituted with community service. In Cyprus, conscription applies to men from the age of 18.

Plans afoot to extend mandatory conscription to women

Under Weber's plan, no one, not even women, would be exempt from conscription. This step was already taken in Norway in 2015 and in Sweden in 2017.

Women were first allowed to join the Norwegian armed forces in 1976, and since then, the government has introduced more than 200 measures to increase the proportion of women in the military. In 2015, Norway became the first NATO member state to introduce mandatory military service for both genders. According to statistical data, by 2020, 33 percent of those performing mandatory military service were women, most of whom demobilized after their service period, with few choosing a military career.

However, the Norwegian example highlighted that mandatory conscription for women is far from risk-free, with a significant number reporting sexual harassment.

In Sweden, compulsory conscription was abolished in 2010 on the grounds that there were enough volunteers in the army, but it was reintroduced for men in 2017 and for women for the first time, due to the changing security situation in Europe. At the time, the government justified the decision by stating that the number of volunteers was still insufficient, and that "modern conscription is gender-neutral." Other countries have followed the Scandinavian example in recent years, with Denmark becoming the third European country to extend conscription to women. Danish Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that "full gender equality" should contribute to resolving defense challenges, according to the Brussels-based Politico news portal.

Norwegian NATO soldiers at a military base in Pabrade, Lithuania, on September 8, 2020 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Valda Kalnina)

In other European countries, however, women are still allowed to enlist on a voluntary basis. In Belgium, women accounted for more than 10 percent of the military last year, and their participation in the army was first authorized as reservists in 1987. In the United Kingdom, the first women's Royal Army Corps was created in 1949, disbanded after the wars of the 20th century, after which women mainly served in support or medical positions. Until 2016, British women were excluded from combat roles, and there was considerable debate about their suitability to fight on the front line. In France, women first appeared in the army as medical personnel in 1914, and more than a century later, in 2018, they were allowed to serve on ballistic missile submarines. Last year, women made up 16.5% of the French army's personnel. In the Netherlands, a 2018 law amendment allows girls as young as 17 to be called up in the event of war.
 

Macron and his circles to bring World War to Europe

With the prospect of the Russia-Ukraine war escalating, French President Emmanuel Macron was among the first to announce at the end of February that "we will do everything to ensure that Russia does not win this war." 

He added that sending Western troops to Ukraine was a possibility, but such a move would clearly mean a major disaster, the outbreak of a third world war.

At the end of March, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that we are on the threshold of a new era. "We've entered a pre-war period," he stated. 

The Americans have handed over to the Europeans the funding and support for the war in Ukraine. Whatever the outcome of the US presidential election, this war has been left to the Europeans,

– Zoltan Kiszelly, director of political analysis at Századvég, told our newspaper earlier.

The expert also pointed out that the "supply" of young, conscription-age Ukrainian men would soon run out, and even if the 650,000 Ukrainian men now living abroad were sent home, it would only last for a year, as would NATO's roughly 350,000-strong force. 

In two years' time, if the war still lasts, there will be no more replacements. So there's a need to start restoring conscription now, to ensure that - even when the are no Ukrainians and professional NATO troops - European replacements are still available for the Ukrainian front line,

– Zoltan Kiszelly underlined. 

Compulsory European conscription was first proposed by the German Junge Union (the youth organization of the Christian Democratic Union [CDU] and the Bavarian Christian Social Union [CSU]). The introduction of military service for women and men across Europe was already on the agenda in 2017, but it did not receive sufficient support at the time.

The document explicitly proposes that "all young people should do military or civilian service in a European country for a minimum of nine months and a maximum of 24 months."

The document was drafted by Paul Ziemiak, then Federal President of the youth organization, which had around 110,000 members, and later a politician in the German Christian Democratic Union, who has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2017 federal elections and a member of the Committee on the Interior and Defence. It would not be surprising if he were among the drafters of the German proposal for a draft law on mandatory military service.

Cover photo: German soldiers at the Klietz training ground in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on February 23, 2024 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Hannibal Hanschke)