Re: More Brexit Doom and Gloom
Originally Posted by
JBR
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I look forward to seeing how this EU Army thing develops.
One thing which might be particularly telling is to whom each country's armed forces swear allegiance.
Ours, of course, swear allegiance to the Queen.
I assume that each European armed forces swear allegiance to their own head of state, be it a monarch or the head of their government. Of course, I may be wrong there and stand to be corrected.
If I were still living in the EU, I think the time when I'd begin to worry a little would be when I hear that European armed forces are ordered to swear allegiance to the European Commission!
A typical example of an oath of allegiance is that sworn by members of parliament in the netherlands:
I swear (affirm) allegiance to the King, to the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and to the Constitution. I swear (affirm) that I will faithfully perform the duties my office lays upon me. So help me God almighty! (This I declare and affirm)
In case no monarch is provided, allegiance is sworn to country and people, like the germans do: "I pledge to faithfully serve the German Federal Republic and to defend the law and the freedom of the German people bravely."
In many commonwealth realms all that is required is an oath to the monarch, and not the constitution or state. There have been moves in some of the realms to make the oath of citizenship sworn by new citizens refer to the country rather than the monarch.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 1999 that the oath of allegiance to a reigning monarch is "reasonably viewed as an affirmation of loyalty to the constitutional principles which support... the workings of representative democracy in the respondent State."
As you see it doesn't exclude the possibility of any army swearing allegiance to: "I pledge to faithfully serve the European Federal Republic and to defend the law and the freedom of the european people bravely."