JOINT COMMUNICATION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Improving Military Mobility in the European Union
Date: 2017-11-10
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: EU action, European defence policy, European security, armed forces, common security and defence policy, military cooperation, military equipment, trans-European network, transport infrastructure

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY Brussels, 10.11.2017 JOIN(2017) 41 final  JOINT COMMUNICATION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Improving Military Mobility in the European Union   
 
 
JOINT COMMUNICATION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

Improving Military Mobility in the European Union 

1. 

Introduction 

The security of Europe's citizens is a priority for the Union, and an issue they expect the EU 
to  address.  The  EU  has  taken  a  range  of  initiatives  to  enable  Europeans  to  take  more 
responsibility  for  their  own  security.  In  2016,  the  Global  Strategy  for  EU  Foreign  and 
Security  Policy  called  for  a  more  effective,  responsive  and  joined-up  Union,  capable  of 
pursuing EU's shared interests and priorities in promoting peace and guaranteeing the security 
of its citizens and territory. In order to further help meet Europe’s current  and future needs, 
the  European  Defence  Action  Plan  committed  the  Commission  to  work  with  other  EU 
relevant actors to increase coherence and synergies between defence issues and other Union 
policies  where  an  EU  added-value  exists.1  The  European  Council  has  recognised  that 
significant  progress  has  been  made  in  the  area  of  security  and  defence.  In  June  2017,  the 
Reflection Paper on the Future of European Defence set out the momentum of EU action on 
defence2. In his State of the Union address of 13 September 2017, President Juncker stressed 
the  imperative  of  creating  a  fully-fledged  European  Defence  Union  by  2025.  Each  of  these 
initiatives serves a single purpose: to build a Union that protects. 

To protect the  Union and its citizens in  today’s unpredictable security environment, the EU 
will take the steps which are necessary to ensure its ability to react effectively and in timely 
manner to internal and external crisis situations, including by enhancing its preparedness and 
resilience.3 In this context Member States are also working towards deepening their defence 
cooperation, including through the Permanent Structured Cooperation as provided for in the 
Treaties.  There  is  both  an  opportunity  and  a  strategic  need  to  fully  exploit  civilian/military 
synergies  to  expedite  military  mobility  –  both  within  our  borders  as  well  as  with  a  view  to 
rapidly deploying military operations abroad.  

It is for Member States to decide in full sovereignty whether troops from another country can 
enter their territory. But in order to be prepared for crises including through military exercises 
and to react to them, it is necessary to ensure that those decisions can be taken fast and that, 
when  taken,  troops  and  equipment  can  move  swiftly  and  smoothly.  Moreover,  the  security 
and  defence  policy  of  certain  Member  States  has  a  specific  character  which  needs  to  be 
respected.  

In this context, the rapid and swift movement of military personnel and equipment across the 
EU  is  currently  hampered  by  a  number  of  physical,  legal  and  regulatory  barriers,  such  as 
infrastructure that cannot support the weight of a military vehicle or cumbersome customs and 
other  procedures.  As  experienced  during  recent  major  military  exercises,  such  barriers  can 
thus lead to delays, disruptions, higher costs and increased vulnerability. Due to the specific 

1 COM(2016) 950, 30.11.2016 
2 COM (2017) 315, 7.6.2017 “The foundations of a European security and defence union are gradually 
being built. Only by advancing firmly along this path will our citizens feel and be safe” 
3 Joint Communication “Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats – a European response” (2016) 
and the Joint Communication “A Strategic Approach to resilience in the EU’s external action” (2017). 

2 

  
 
 
                                                                 
status of armed forces and equipment, military mobility is legally bound by a wide range of 
national decisions and EU rules that determine whether national and international movements 
are possible. A wider range of policy areas may be relevant (home affairs, justice, economy 
and finance, labour,  transport,  defence,  customs, environment, health). NATO  also provides 
standards  and  procedures  in  this  area  for  its  members.  Issues  range  from  customs  to  the 
requirements  for  safe  and  secure  transport  of  persons  and  military  equipment  including  the 
transport  of  dangerous  goods,  aspects  of  liability  including  environmental  legislation,  from 
the  physical  and  legal  protection  of  personnel  to  the  availability  and  adequacy  of  relevant 
transport infrastructure. Given the legislative and physical framework, it is often difficult for 
the military to respond as quickly as can be needed. It is therefore important to examine the 
measures  that  should  be  taken  to  improve  processes,  in  full  respect  to  the  sovereignty  of 
Member States and in accordance with the EU Treaties and legislation.  

While most measures are and will be in the hands of Member States, there are ways in which 
the EU can help. The purpose of this Joint Communication is therefore to set out how the EU, 
including  with  its  existing  policies,  will  work  to  facilitate  and  help  to  expedite  military 
mobility  ranging  from  day-to-day  needs  to  strategic  pre-deployment  of  military  forces  and 
resources,  in  synergy  with  non-military  activities  and  without  disrupting  civilian  use  of 
infrastructure or avoiding unnecessary inconveniences.  

2.  

Ongoing projects, activities and initiatives on military mobility  

Several  initiatives  are  already  helping  to  improve  military  mobility  in  the  EU  context. 
Transport infrastructure has traditionally been a necessary component of any defence system, 
providing in particular routes for military supplies and troop movement. Over the years, the 
EU  has  developed  an  ambitious  transport  infrastructure  policy4.  This  area  offers  a  clear 
opportunity  to  increase  the  coherence  and  synergies  between  defence  issues  and  existing 
Union  policies, thereby exploiting the  EU’s  added  value,  reducing  unnecessary  duplications 
and promoting a more efficient use of public money and avoiding sub-optimal investments in 
the longer run. 

Initiatives  are  also  under  way  to  promote  civil/military  synergies  based  on  EU  policies  in 
areas  such  as  research, cyber security,  aviation,  border  control and  maritime  surveillance  as 
well as space. A mechanism agreed between the Commission, the European Defence Agency 
and Member States to initiate the development of defence and hybrid standards for dual-use 
products is a good example of more horizontal initiatives. Such activities could have positive 
spill-overs also as regards facilitating military mobility. 

Member States are furthermore taking forward a number of projects in the framework of the 
European Defence Agency: 

- 

In  2014  fourteen  Member  States  decided  to  open  a  dedicated  project  within  the 
European  Defence  Agency  dedicated  to  an  EU  Multimodal  Transport  Hub.  Those 
Member  States  have  identified  the  need  to  better  coordinate  military  movement.  A 
Multimodal Hub Transport (M2TH) network is being developed in order to facilitate 
the fast movement of troops, through harmonised regulations, procedures and process 
as  well  as  pooling  and  sharing  of  assets  and  infrastructure  in  Europe.    Core  to  this 
project  is  the  central  coordination  of  movement,  identifying  a  physical  network  of 

4 The trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) policy 

3 

  
 
 
 
 
                                                                 
locations and identifying services to be provided. All is executed using simplified and 
harmonised  procedures  within  the  boundaries  of  EU  legislation  and  national  laws. 
Other Member States have shown interest to join this project. 

-  The Diplomatic Clearances Agreement initiative presents a further programme under 
the  European  Defence  Agency  umbrella  and  has  led  to  a  Diplomatic  Clearances 
Technical Agreement in 2012. The number of participating Member States has grown 
to sixteen. The Technical Agreement harmonises the administrative procedures (forms 
and  timelines)  and  offers  the  option  to  grant  pre-emptive  clearances.  All  Member 
States involved have chosen to grant the clearance, and thus the Technical Agreement 
becomes  a  full-fledged  enabler  for  day-to-day  expeditious  military  air  transport 
movement in most routine cases. 

NATO is also developing a number of activities to facilitate military mobility, such as work 
on  legal  instruments  to  facilitate  freedom  of  movement,  situational  awareness  of  the 
infrastructure, improvement of rapid air mobility, as well as civil preparedness and resilience 
work. 

Multinational initiatives are also underway trying to minimize the number of limitations and 
restrictions  in  the  military  mobility  and  to  find  new  ways  to  remove  the  existing  barriers. 
Some actors are well known and are already in support of the diverse activities with a high 
level  of  professionalism,  like  the  Movement  Coordination  Centre  Europe  (MCCE),  a 
multinational  organization  that  arranges  multi-modal  transport  solutions,  the  European  Air 
Transport  Command  which  accomplishes  among  others  planning  and  tasking  of  the  air-
transport, and the Athens Multinational Sealift Coordination Centre which identifies suitable 
transportation  assets  per  mission  requests.  Other  multinational  initiatives  also  exist  and  are 
active in this domain.  

Any  further  EU  actions  should  take  into  account  these  ongoing  projects  and  seek  synergies 
and consistency, avoiding unnecessary duplications or contradictions. 

3. 

Needs and requirements for military mobility  

Recently, the remaining regulatory and infrastructural bottlenecks have come to fore, as they 
hamper  military movement to  the detriment of Member States’ defence needs. A reinforced 
effort  is  needed  to  develop  a  more  coordinated  approach  which  maximises  the  EU’s  added 
value and civilian/military synergies.  

The starting point for an effective approach across the EU to help improve military mobility 
by addressing all dimensions involved is to develop a shared understanding of the needs and 
requirements. 

These military requirements and specificities will need to be further examined and agreed 
upon by the Member States as a basis for further EU action. They would need to cover at least 
the following areas: 

-  Availability  of  physical  infrastructure  complying  with  the  necessary  technical 

requirements for all transport modes and multimodal nodes; 

-  Legal  parameters  for  access  to  the  transport  infrastructure  within  EU,  including  for 
import/export  of  forces  and  military  equipment  outside  of  Europe,  including  for 
dangerous goods; 

4 

  
 
 
 
 
 
  
-  Protection of military personnel, equipment and restricted data; 

-  Liability of military forces and status of forces; 

-  Time related considerations such as priority requirements with regards to the civilian 

traffic, notifications and requests timings;  

-  Support  requirements  for  host  Member  States  (fuel,  accommodation,  logistical 

support, maintenance and recovery, procurement, health and medical…);  

-  Coordination requirements, capacities and process between national and international 

military and civilian authorities; 

- 

Information  exchange (electronic data/ database/ hubs) between  civilian and military 
databases. 

4. 

Identifying lines of action 

Based  on  the  needs  and  requirements  to  be  further  examined  by  the  Member  States,  and 
taking  into  account  the  ongoing  work,  different  lines  of  action  could  then  be  identified  to 
address the shortfalls.  

To address the persistent shortfalls and promote better coordination and enhanced synergies 
among all stakeholders, an expert Ad Hoc Working Group has recently been established in the 
European Defence Agency. The objectives of the working group are to identify obstacles and 
barriers in cross-border and transiting for surface movement of military personnel and assets, 
to map existing initiatives and shortfalls, identify relevant actors at EU and national level and 
to  develop  an  action  plan  with  dedicated  tasks,  responsibilities  including  a  roadmap  with 
timelines. Among the principles to be followed are avoidance of duplication and inclusiveness 
in order to address all relevant stakeholders. 

While carrying out this work will require efforts by different actors at different levels, there 
are  areas  where  the  EU  could  offer  possible  solutions  in  line  with  the  Treaties  and  create 
synergies  relying  on  policies  and  projects  developed  over  the  years  primarily  for  civilian 
purposes. These areas are subject to legislation, procedures and investment instruments which 
would need to be adapted, including at EU level, to make them suitable for military uses. 

  Infrastructure:  Actual  movement  requires  close  coordination  between  EU  Member 
States.  It  requires  a  common  understanding  on  the  infrastructure  to  be  used.  Due  to  the 
quality  of  the  infrastructure  itself  and  to  differences  in  standards,  submitting  movement 
requests  is  very  time  consuming.  This  may  lead  to  unexpected  obstruction  during  the 
execution of the movement.  

It  will  thus  be  necessary  to  assess  current  infrastructure  and  define  infrastructural 
standards that take also into account military requirements. Such an analysis would enable 
the  EU  to  develop  an  infrastructural  standard  that  integrates  the  military  profile  for 
multimodal  transport.  This  could  cover  both  the  development  of  new  infrastructure  and 
the upgrading of existing one. A close link with the long term infrastructure investment of 
the Union needs to be established, as the financial implications of this work stream have 
not yet been quantified. 

The example of the EU transport infrastructure  

The  trans-European  network  for  transport  (TEN-T)  consists  of  a  comprehensive  network 

5 

  
 
 
 
 
ensuring  the  accessibility  of  all  EU  regions  to  be  completed  in  2050  and  of  a  core  network 
with  the  strategically  most  important  parts  to  be  completed  in  2030.  The  TEN-T  network 
identifies  ports,  airports,  rail-tracks,  roads  and  inland  waterways.  Nine  multimodal  core 
network corridors have been established to facilitate the completion of major parts of the core 
network.  

It is important in the first place to analyse the possible dual use of the network and to find out 
where  overlaps  and  where  gaps  lie  as  an  important  first  step  ahead.  In  the  TEN-T  policy 
ambitious  and  uniform  standards  in  the  form  of  technical  requirements  are  defined  for  all 
infrastructure  components,  especially  for  the  core  network.  They  reflect  the  predominant 
civilian use of the infrastructure. Some of these corridors could be identified as possible test-
cases for a pilot analysis. 

The  TEN-T  policy  is  also  underpinned  by  an  interactive  geographical  and  technical 
information  system  (TENtec),  which  contains  maps  and  other  information  on  the  TEN-T 
uniform standards. Cooperation with relevant defence stakeholders on this database could be 
enhanced to reap possible synergies.  
The Connecting Europe Facility5 is the strategic EU investment instrument for the realisation 
of the TEN-T. The Facility has proven very effective in mobilising rapidly investments into 
improving EU transport infrastructure and in focusing on the projects generating the high EU 
added  value.  The  focus  of  the  Facility  lies  clearly  on  cross-border  civilian  projects  and 
missing links, including the necessary interoperability systems – such as for air and rail traffic 
management  –  and  innovation,  as  well  as  investments  in  ports,  airports  and  their  hinterland 
connections  for  the  multimodal  functioning  of  the  network.  This  is  crucial  for  forward 
presence of the military. 

Good  quality  infrastructure  requires  sufficient  investment  and  maintenance,  in  particular  to 
ensure  appropriate  and  seamless  multi-modal  connections  with  mutual  civilian  and  military 
benefits.  While  the  Facility  concentrates  on  the  transport  civilian  priorities  only,  there  are 
obvious  examples  where  additional  investment  could  yield  significant  benefits  for  military 
goals,  such  as  projects  of  cross-border  nature,  critical  infrastructure  and  key  infrastructure 
components.  Identifying  the  possible  synergies  and  looking  at  such  dual  use,  alongside 
reinforcing budgets where needed, is thus an absolute must for both the civilian and military 
infrastructure.  It  could  be  reinforced  to  achieve  the  TEN-T  core  network  by  2030  and  the 
European Defence Union by 2025. 

  Addressing relevant regulatory and procedural issues: 

-  Customs: The new EU Customs legislation that applies since May 2016 requires that 
all  customs  formalities  are  in  principle  fully  electronic.  In  order  to  simplify  and 
harmonise the customs formalities required for military movements in the Union, the 
customs  issues  identified  are  being  analysed  with  a  view  to  establishing  customs 
procedures that better meet the specific needs of such movements. Any amendments 
proposed  to  the  customs  regulatory  framework  will  in  particular  take  account  of 
relevant existing practices, such as the NATO 302 format. 

5 Regulation (EU) N° 1316/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 December 2013 
establishing  the  Connecting  Europe  Facility,  amending  Regulation  (EU)  N°  913/2010  and  repealing 
Regulations (EC) N° 680/2007 and (EC) N° 67/2010; OJ L348, 20.12.2013, p. 129 

6 

  
 
 
 
                                                                 
-  Dangerous  goods:  The  EU  legislation  on  the  transport  of  dangerous  goods  is 
currently  not  applicable  to  military  transport.  If  military  vehicles  comply  with  this 
legislation  they  should  have  the  same  advantages  as  civilian  vehicles.  This  would 
facilitate the movement of troops and military equipment. 

-  National procedures: Considering that military mobility heavily depends on Member 
States’  national  requirements,  procedures  and  practices,  exchange  of  information  to 
better  understand  the  cases  where  common  rules  would  be  possible  and  provide  for 
greater coherence should be examined. For example, developing a single procedure to 
ensure military mobility for all EU Member States could be considered. The extensive 
work done within the European Defence Agency projects provides a basis. EU actions 
could  facilitate  or  support  Member  States  in  this  process,    should  Member  States  so 
request.  

  Hybrid  threats:  Following  the  joint  framework  on  countering  hybrid  threats,  several 
actions have been identified on the resilience to hybrid threats of critical infrastructures in 
Europe, such as transport infrastructures. This work will be pursued and strengthened, also 
in the framework of the ongoing EU/NATO cooperation on countering hybrid threats, so 
as to ensure the resilience of those infrastructures which are strategic in light of the work 
to improve military mobility in the EU.  

EU  legislation  in  other  areas  could  also  be  looked  at  for  possible  relevance  to  military 
mobility. 

5. 

Coordination with other stakeholders 

The same impediments to rapid and seamless movement of military forces and assets across 
national borders in Europe are also affecting Member States in other contexts, notably within 
NATO.  In  this  regard,  coordination  and  dialogue  with  NATO  should  be  taken  forward  as 
well. This will be done in full openness and transparency, full respect of the decision-making 
autonomy  and  procedures  of  both  organisations,  inclusiveness  and  reciprocity  without 
prejudice  to  the  specific  character  of  the  security  and  defence  policy  of  any  Member  State. 
Interaction  with  other  relevant  stakeholders  and  partners  is  also  important  to  optimise  the 
effectiveness,  promote  synergies  where  possible  and  avoid  unnecessary  duplication  in 
identifying next steps to facilitate and expedite military mobility within Europe. 

6.  Way forward  

By March 2018, the High Representative and the Commission will submit an Action Plan on 
Military  Mobility  for  Member  States’  endorsement.  This  plan  will  build  upon  the results  of 
the  European  Defence  Agency’s  Ad  Hoc  Working  Group  on  Military  Mobility  and  will 
propose  recommended  actions,  implementing  actors  and  ambitious  timelines  on  how  to 
address identified barriers hampering military mobility within the European Union.  

7