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While even organising a combined European defence based on conventional forces ships, troops, and aircraft has proven more than the EU is politically capable of and has been a major contributing factor to the impending departure of the United Kingdom from the bloc, the claims are that a common nuclear defence system have at least been considered.

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Reporting the comments of proponents of the plan, which theNYTconcedes are in a minority in proposing the once unthinkable scheme, the paper quotes German and Polish politicians, but not lawmakers from France and Britain, nations that actually have the weapons. German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party foreign policy spokesmanRoderich Kiesewetter is one of those voices, and is reported by the NYT to have said, My idea is to build on the existing weapons in Great Britain and France, but admits with the UK leaving the Union it would mean they wouldnt take part in his plans.

Potential developments of the theoretical discussions could see French nuclear warheads distributed across Europe, with Germany contributing to the cost of the programme, and a central European nuclear command centre established for the EU.

However, France, the only other nuclear power in Europe after the UKs departure, would also likely be reticent to see control over their ultimate guarantor of national security signed over to Brussels.Bruno Tertrais of the Foundation for Strategic Research, who reportedly remarked of the plans, In other times I would have told you dont bother, theres no story here, was speaking out now because of European concern over the potential changing attitude towards the NATO alliance of U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Tertrais said of the French that they would insist on keeping hold of the final decision to use nuclear weapons, making the scheme difficult if not impossible.

Renewed thinking about the scheme, according to a report along similar lines in theEconomist onThursday, was apparently triggered by the victory of President Trump last year, following his calls for NATO alliance members to meet the defence spending targets they had agreed to as recently as 2014 at the Wales summit.

Despite the Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic Bond signed by member nations binding them to spend two per cent of GDP, only a handful of nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Poland, actually do so. Others including Germany ironically, one of the nations most seriously concerned about a withdrawal of U.S. support for a military alliance and have consistently failed to pay into according to their treaty obligations fail to meet the target.

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Claim: European Union Considers Plan to Take Over French, British Nuclear Weapons For EU Defence - Breitbart News

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Mogherini, who has pushed hard for the EU to take on an increased military role, said foreign and defence ministers of the 28 member states unanimously backed the project.

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Today we decided to establish a MPCC (Military Planning Conduct and Capability facility) which will command the EUs non-executive military missions, she told reporters.

The facility will initially run three operations civil-military training missions in Mali, the Central African Republic and Somalia which do not involve the use of force, other than in self-defence.

The EU has also mounted Operation Sophia in the central Mediterranean, which can use force to stop migrant smugglers, and Operation Atalanta, part of international anti-piracy forces off the Horn of Africa.

These executive operations have their own command centres which will remain separate.

Mogherini said the decision was a huge step forward for the EU after decades of division over what defence role the bloc should take on with exit-bound Britain having long opposed it.

She spoke of a certain pride about the agreement.

This is one of the fields where traditionally we have had in the history of the European Union more divisiveness since the Fifies we were struggling in the defence field, she said.

Britains vote to leave the EU, stripping the bloc of one of its most powerful and nuclear-armed countries, plus doubts about US President Donald Trumps NATO commitment have given fresh impetus to efforts to step up military cooperation.

But top EU officials, including Mogherini, have had to repeatedly issue reassurances that the bloc is not going to undercut NATO as the primary defence for Europe.

Besides Britain, many of the former Communist states of eastern Europe such as Poland and Hungary have argued consistently that NATO must come first, given the need for US support in facing a more assertive Russia.

It is not a European army I know this is the label going around it is a more effective way of handling our military work, Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister, said as she went into the meeting earlier Monday.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common EU defence headquarters in September after the Brexit vote, resurrecting an idea that had circulated in the EU for years.

The new facility will initially have a small staff of around 30 and come under the EUs existing military structures.

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European Union Approves New Military HQ - Breitbart News

BRUSSELS A push by Poland's eurosceptic government to remove fellow-countryman Donald Tusk from one of the top jobs in the European Union failed to win any public support on Monday as EU foreign ministers met to discuss it in Brussels.

But Poland, which is also at loggerheads with Brussels over climate change, migration and its treatment of judges and the media, was signaling it would not budge - possibly setting the stage for a showdown at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.

Tusk's first term expires this May and he enjoys the comfortable backing of most EU states to be reappointed for another 2-1/2 years as president of the European Council, responsible for chairing summits of EU leaders.

But Poland, where the head of the ruling party is Tusk's arch-foe, wants to oust Tusk from the influential post and replace him with another Pole, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.

Many in Brussels dread opening another feud at a time when the bloc faces daunting challenges including handling the pending departure of Britain, facing up to an assertive Russia and getting to grips with new U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Poland's ruling party boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski is implacably opposed to Tusk, holding him "morally responsible" for the death of his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, in a plane crash in Russia in 2010, when Tusk was Polish prime minister. Polish and Russian probes blamed pilot error.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, in Brussels for talks with his EU peers, said Warsaw was insistent on Saryusz-Wolski, a center-right European Parliament member.

"This is our candidate and he is in the game. This is the only Polish candidate right now for the post of the European Council head. There is no other Polish candidate," he said.

Over a Sunday dinner in Brussels, Waszczykowski had sought to persuade his peers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The leaders of four ex-communist eastern EU states met in Warsaw last week, but failed to agree on opposing Tusk together. The Czech minister, Lubomir Zaoralek, said on Monday that the easterners had much to lose.

"If there were other candidates, it could have a very unpleasant result... I am afraid that this can result in central and eastern Europe losing its representative, and I would consider that a serious mistake," he said.

The fact that the bitter political rivalry between Kaczynski and Tusk has spilled over to Brussels has raised many eyebrows in the European capital. Waszczykowski refused to say if any other country backed Saryusz-Wolski, and the other ministers did not offer any public support.

PANDORA'S BOX

A soft-spoken centrist, Tusk is widely seen in the EU as a safe pair of hands. The decision on whether to give him a new term is expected this Thursday. While unanimity would have been the preferred option, a majority vote is enough to keep him.

Waszczykowski suggested the decision could be delayed, but Zaoralek said that would risk opening a Pandora's box. No third candidate has emerged so far.

"There is a majority for Tusk, and pleasing Kaczynski is not on everyone's mind in Brussels," said a senior diplomat from one of the other states that took part in the Sunday dinner.

Another senior diplomat said agreeing to a third candidate to appease Poland, or delaying the decision beyond Thursday would be succumbing to blackmail.

"Whatever the cost at this stage, we need to get it over with as soon as possible," the person said.

But some diplomats and officials suggested Poland could decide to pick a fight on Thursday, possibly by broadening the talks to include EU climate policies. EU member states reached an early agreement on reforming the bloc's carbon market last week despite opposition from Poland, which wants to protect its economically important coal industry.

(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels, Robert Muller in Prague, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump signed a revised executive order on Monday banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States but removing Iraq from the list, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts.

MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured the second of Mosul's five bridges on Monday, giving a boost to their onslaught on Islamic State's remaining stronghold in the western part of the city.

AMMAN Syrian government forces have taken over positions from a U.S.-backed militia in the northern city of Manbij on part of a frontline with Turkish-backed rebel forces, in line with a deal brokered by Russia, the militia's spokesman said on Monday.

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Poland lacks backing in quest to unseat EU's Tusk - Reuters

VERSAILLES, France German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the European Union risked running into trouble unless it allowed members to participate at varying levels of intensity.

"We need to have the courage for some countries to go ahead if not everyone wants to participate. A Europe of different speeds is necessary otherwise we will probably get stuck," Merkel told a joint news conference with the French, Italian and Spanish leaders in Versailles.

"It needs to always be open for everyone - no one should be excluded but not everyone needs to be forced to participate in every project," Merkel added. "If Europe gets stuck and doesn't develop further, then this work of peace may run into danger faster than one might think."

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by Andrea Shalal)

ISTANBUL/BERLIN Tayyip Erdogan's portrayal of a Germany mired in its Nazi past was calculated to infuriate Berlin while swaying Turks at home and abroad to vote "yes" to sweeping new presidential powers he seeks.

DUBLIN Ireland will widen an inquiry into former Church-run homes for unmarried mothers if needed, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Monday, calling the discovery of long-dead babies at one home "truly appalling".

WASHINGTON The United States is deploying an advanced anti-missile defence system to South Korea as part of steps to bolster its ability to defend against North Korean ballistic missiles, the White House said on Monday.

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European Union should be multi-speed or we might get stuck - Merkel - Reuters UK

Michael Fallon will urge the EU to cooperate more closely with Nato. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

The EU must not undermine Nato by recreating its military structures, the UK defence secretary will tell European leaders.

As the bloc aims to deepen its defence cooperation, EU foreign and defence ministers are expected to agree at a meeting on Monday to establish a small military command centre in Brussels to aid planning and conduct capability.

Arriving in Brussels before the meeting, Michael Fallon said he would be urging EU leaders to cooperate through the atlantic defence union. Today we are urging the European Union to cooperate more closely with Nato to avoid unnecessary duplication of structures and to work together on new threats, including the need to strengthen cybersecurity, he said.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, is driving efforts to improve defence coordination among EU member states, with the aim of providing the bloc with strategic autonomy from its Nato allies, notably the US.

Weeks before Theresa May is expected to trigger article 50 negotiations, Fallon insisted Britain would continue to be a key military ally for the EU.

He said: Although we are leaving the European Union, we continue to cooperate with our European partners on defence and security and in the fight against terrorism and aggregation.

This month we are deploying troops to Estonia, later to Poland, and we are sending RAF jets to Romania. We also continue to play our part in the European mission in the Mediterranean, rescuing migrants and tackling people smuggling.

Britain vetoed similar plans for EU military structures in 2011 and 2013 but it is not expected to block the current proposals, which have to be agreed by all member states.

The EUs command control centre, due to be in operation this spring, will initially take charge of three existing EU military training missions in Mali, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

In a sign of the political sensitivities, however, countries are understood to have debated at length whether the head of the new body should be called a commander or director before opting for director as the more appropriate title.

Last September, Fallon prompted anger among EU member states when he vowed to veto any attempts to build an EU army, a proposal that has been backed previously by the commission president. He said then: That is not going to happen. We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.

Baltic states, in particular, have traditionally been nervous of the EU expanding its defence cooperation fearing the US will be pushed away. However, the election of Donald Trump to the White House has revealed the danger in the EUs reliance on the US at a time when it appears to be winding down its global reach.

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EU should avoid duplicating Nato, says Michael Fallon - The Guardian