Italy's foreign minister calls for formation of European Union army

The European Union should form its own combined army that could play a role in peacekeeping and preventing conflict, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Tajani said that closer European co-operation on defence was a priority for the Forza Italia party that he leads. "If we want to be peacekeepers in the world, we need a European military. And this is a fundamental precondition to be able to have an effective European foreign policy," he said in an interview published on Sunday. "In a world with powerful players like the United States,…