Speaking to Sputnik, Czech military expert Ivan Kratochvil said that "the creation of the EU army with the aim of ensuring the territorial integrity and inviolability of EU countries unequivocally threatens the US interests in Europe."
He drew attention to the fact that Stoltenberg's remarks came ahead of an informal meeting of the defense and foreign ministers of EU countries which was held in the Estonian capital Tallinn earlier this week.
"He wants more European forces, more modern capabilities and more defense spending. Also, Stoltenberg wants to avoid differences and such duplication as the creation of the European command or the European army as well as the rhetoric that Europe could do without NATO," Kratochvil said.
According to him, the NATO Secretary General has repeatedly warned against creating the European army because "the alliance provides US dominance in Europe."
"This is a forceful instrument of US influence on its allies and the countries neighboring with NATO members. From the point of view of geopolitics, Russia is the first and most serious enemy of NATO," Kratochvil pointed out.
In this regard, he referred to "the development of NATO, especially in recent years when the US had no counterweight in the world."
"The so-called 'old' NATO members are allowed to have an army, that is, ground forces, aviation and navy which in terms of quantity and technical equipment do not threaten US supremacy. The [NATO] 'newcomers' were doomed to being seen as reinforcements," he said.
Kratochvil recalled that adopting this concept, the armed forces of the Czech Republic lost its air defense system as well as tank, engineering, railway, missile and other units.
As for the Czech Republic's symbolic expeditionary corps, their main task is to defend US interests in the world, according to the expert.
"The creation of effective European air defense systems, such as Thales Raythenon, is possible but unacceptable from the point of view of US superiority. Also, the arming of detachments and subunits of US satellites takes place either at the expense of morally obsolete weapons or in small quantities," Kratochvil said.
"In this vein, we can safely say that Mr. Stoltenberg is right by saying that the EU is unable to protect itself from an equal enemy. The condition of EU countries' armies clearly indicates the dependence of separate states on American domination. It is absolutely impossible to refute this," he concluded.
The idea of a single EU army has been in the air for several years. Since around 2013, Berlin has been overseeing efforts towards closer EU defense integration through the Framework Nations Concept, which stipulates that Germany share its troops and capabilities with other European countries.
In July of this year, conservative member of the UK Parliament Daniel Kawczynski told Sputnik that the possible establishment of the single EU army will be a catastrophe.
"We have a strong demarcation line between Russia and Western Europe and both sides know that this is a line that must not be crossed. I think that German plans to create the single European army would be a disaster and would cause great uncertainty and weakness for Europe," Kawczynski said.
In June, the German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces said that the creation of the EU army is inevitable. Speaking to the German Press Agency, Hans-Peter Bartels renewed calls on the EU's militaries to unite into a single armed force.
His statement came amid growing concerns about the reliability of NATO as well as the disorganization and fragmentation of national defense structures.
