EU plans to improve military mobility among member states

BRUSSELS – The European Union is making plans to improve military mobility among its member states and allow equipment to move more quickly across the continent.

The EU Commission proposed a plan to cut administrative red tape and reinforce certain roads and railways to make easier the transport of heavy defense equipment such as tanks.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says that "by facilitating military mobility within the EU, we can be more effective in preventing crises, more efficient in deploying our missions and quicker in reacting."

To kick off, member states this year will look at where the bottlenecks are and how to ease customs formalities. The EU also will need to look at which civil projects on roads and railways can have a defense component.