Also Engaging in Military Mobility Project

Canada has been invited to an EU PESCO programme, aimed at creating a multinational network of existing types of logistic infrastructures to prepare, move, mantain and store  equipment for military operations, EU foreign ministers agreed earlier this week.

The final aim of the project “Network of logistic Hubs in Europe and Support to Operations” (NetLoGHubs) is to help synchronise material movements across Europe, in order to speed up and simplify military operations. The project, launched in 2018 and led by Germany, has 16 EU countries as members, including Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

Besides NetLoGHubs, Canada also joined the critical PESCO Military Mobility project – one of the highest points of practical collaboration between the EU and NATO – which aims to ensure swift, seamless movement of military personnel, equipment and assets.

The two projects are related and are linked to another, the European Multi-Modal Transport Hub, which provides lines of communication between the multinational hubs.

Although all three programmes were launched prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they have become dramatically more important since European countries started delivering military aid. That is also why, last November, the EU launched an EU Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0, aimed at improving the status of the military mobility network in Europe and beyond.

Since November 2020, other non-EU countries meeting specific conditions have been able to join PESCO projects, notably Canada, Norway and the US. For the latter, however, the official green light was only given earlier in February, after administrative arrangements were concluded between the European Defence Agency and US DoD.