Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that the European Union should form its own joint army that could play a role in maintaining peace and preventing conflicts, Reuters reports, News.ro reports.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Tajani said that closer European defense cooperation is a priority for his Forza Italia party.

“If we want to be defenders of peace in the world, we need a European army. And this is a fundamental prerequisite for being able to have an effective European foreign policy,” he said in an interview published on Sunday.

“In a world with such powerful actors as the United States, China, India, Russia – with crises from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific region – the citizens of Italy, Germany, France or Slovenia can only be protected by what already exists, namely Europe. Union,” he added.

European defense cooperation has become more important on the political agenda since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

However, efforts are more focused on NATO enlargement, with Finland, an EU member, joining the alliance last year and Sweden also set to become a member.

Tajani also said that the European Union, which consists of 27 member states, should streamline its leadership and have a single presidency instead of the current structure consisting of the president of the European Council and the president of the European Commission.

The foreign minister became the leader of Forza Italia after the death of Silvio Berlusconi last year.

The June elections to the European Parliament will be the first indicator of the party’s popularity after the loss of its former leader.