Why a single European NATO navy would struggle

How should European NATO states combine their navies into a single clean-sheet force?

A unified force could divide responsibilities among Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black Sea commands, but would require political, industrial, linguistic, foreign-policy, and nuclear-command unity that the member states do not possess.

A unitary European navy would need a common command despite the different memberships of NATO and the EU. One suggested structure divides responsibility among Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black Sea forces, with the larger ocean-going fleets also covering distant commitments. The obstacles extend to national control of deployments and the distribution of shipyard orders. A genuinely combined force would also need agreement on foreign, trade, industrial, and language policy, since one member's decisions could commit the others to a conflict. Countries with recent experience of Soviet domination are especially unlikely to welcome a loss of military independence in this interpretation. Control of British and French nuclear submarines presents a further obstacle. NATO's common standards allow national forces to operate together while retaining their own command arrangements.