The EU will on Wednesday present detailed plans to make it easier to move troops and equipment around the bloc as Europe seeks to boost its defenses in the face of the growing threat from Russia.
Russia's Zapad war games on NATO's eastern flank late last year raised alarm in Brussels and Washington that large-scale drills could accidentally trigger a conflict in eastern Europe but leave NATO unable to speedily mass troops there.
Officials want to create a "military Schengen zone" similar to the EU's civilian passport-free travel area by simplifying customs checks and bureaucracy that currently cause hold-ups for NATO forces and vehicles trying to cross borders.
Top NATO commanders say the changes are essential if Europe is to have a serious deterrent to potential Russian aggression, warning that cumbersome checks are hampering their ability to move resources quickly.
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, will present an action plan for reducing bureaucratic hurdles and improving infrastructure to make sure roads and bridges are able to carry heavy military equipment.
"By facilitating military mobility within the EU, we can be more effective in preventing crises, more efficient in deploying our missions, and quicker in reacting when challenges arise," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said of the so-called Action Plan on Military Mobility.
The plan will now go to EU governments and the European Parliament for discussion.
Following a pilot program last year to identify weak spots along North Sea-Baltic routes, where Russia regularly conducts military drills and has built up its air defenses in Kaliningrad, the European Commission will next year outline the best routes across Europe for military transport.
The Commission, which oversees the EU's common budget, will also look at areas to upgrade infrastructure and estimate costs, how to streamline customs procedures for munitions and dangerous goods, and seek better cooperation between EU agencies.
By harmonizing national rules and simplifying border procedures, EU member states could save at least 30 billion euros (37.2 billion dollars), according to EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.
Infrastructure upgrades would also bring advantages outside of the military sector, for example by improving roads and railway services for commercial use, according to the commission, the EU's executive arm.
Tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.
"There is a practical dimension to these proposals, but the end purpose is obvious as soon as tensions rise with Russia," a European diplomat said.
Another warned that "we can no longer say that conflict in Europe is impossible".
U.S. General Ben Hodges, commander of US ground forces in Europe at the time, in October last year said that to create an effective deterrent to Moscow, NATO needed to move forces "as quick or quicker than Russian Federation forces".
"What we have called for is something similar to a military Schengen zone. To have that same sort of freedom of movement a truck full of Polish apples has," Hodges said.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, annexed and ruled by the Soviet Union for decades and deeply aware of the threat from their giant neighbor, have already created a military mini-Schengen among themselves, Elisabeth Braw of the Atlantic Council think tank said.
NATO has deployed around 4,000 troops along with tanks and artillery in Poland and the Baltic countries -- the biggest reinforcement in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War -- both as a sign of determination and to be ready in the event a crisis erupts.
Elsewhere the pattern is erratic. Some countries have streamlined procedures for moving vehicles and dangerous goods such as ammunition, others not.
"If you want to take a military truck with general cargo into Italy you only have to give 48 hours notification, whereas in other countries you have to give up to 14 working days," Braw told AFP.
"If you want to travel through Italy you'll get to where you need to go very fast but if you want to travel through the Czech Republic you'll be waiting."
In some cases, military convoys have to be registered months in advance in exacting detail, down to number plates and drivers' names, severely restricting commanders' ability to adapt their plans.
While troops can be moved by air, moving an armored brigade's worth of tanks needs roads and railways and other infrastructure.
Under the action plan, the EU will determine which parts of the continent's transport network are suitable for military vehicles and which need upgrading. Dedicated EU funding could be devoted to projects that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
"We need to make sure the necessary infrastructure exists -- the tunnels are passable, the roads are wide enough and the bridges can carry the weight of the equipment," a diplomat explained.
After the end of the Cold War, the need for military movement around Europe declined as there was no longer thought to be a danger of invasion, but the events in Crimea and Ukraine in 2014 once again brought the threat from the east back into sharp focus.
"We need to focus on territorial defense again -- we can have all the equipment in the world but if it can't travel to where it needs to go efficiently it's absolutely useless," Braw said.
The plan is a test both for the European Union's renewed efforts to coordinate on military matters and to work better with NATO, which has its own standards for military-strength bridges, roads, tunnels and airfields.
If the EU were to design its own system, that would create unnecessary duplication and likely anger the United States.
While Washington no longer has Cold War-levels of personnel stationed in Europe, it has begun returning tanks, troops and helicopters to Germany, Poland and the Baltics as part of the West's deterrent following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
