The EU’s roads and infrastructure cannot support rapid troop and equipment deployments if it is to go to war with Russia, the bloc’s transport minister warned.
Should the inevitable come, tanks and vehicles will be stuck in tunnels and border controls – or worse, collapse bridges, according to EU Transport Minister Apostolos Tzitzikostas.
Tzitzikostas, in his interview with the Financial Times (FT), said the bloc does not have the infrastructure needed to deploy equipment to the eastern flank at its current state.
“The reality today is that if we want to move military equipment and troops from the western side of Europe to the eastern side, it takes weeks and in some cases months,” Tzitzikostas said.
Most European roads and bridges simply cannot support the weight of war machines – with tanks often weighing 70 tonnes as opposed to ordinary cargo trucks weighing 40 tonnes, as noted by the FT.
“We have old bridges that need to be upgraded,” Tzitzikostas said. “We have narrow bridges that need to be widened. And we have nonexistent bridges to be built.”
Tzitzikostas’s warning came as Europe braced for a Russian invasion in the near future – with some believing it could happen as soon as five years from now.
The EU transport chief said the bloc is ramping up infrastructure projects alongside a recent boost to rearm.
Part of that plan is to revamp infrastructure across the bloc by upgrading 500 infrastructure projects along four military corridors, a drive in cooperation with NATO that is estimated to cost €17 billion ($19.6 billion).
Tzitzikostas did not disclose the details due to the plan’s sensitivity. He is set to unveil the plan later this year, according to FT.
The other part of the equation is reducing red tape between EU and non-EU member states to reduce delays caused by bureaucratic processes with “tanks being stuck in paperwork,” Tzitzikostas said.
According to Tzitzikostas, the funding will go towards NATO and EU members’ 5% GDP spending on defense pledged earlier this year,