France will start a voluntary military service program in 2026 for 18- and 19-year-old people. Belgium and the Netherlands have started voluntary military service, and Germany is also planning something similar.
- France will start a voluntary military service program in 2026 for 18- and 19-year-old people, with a target to enroll 3,000 participants initially and increase it to 50,000 by 2035. This announcement was made by President Emmanuel Macron during a speech in Varses in the Alps.
- Volunteers will work for ten months, beginning with a one-month basic military skills and initial weapon training, and then work for nine months in a military unit deployed only in the French territory.
- Participants will receive a salary and they will take part in all missions, including Operation Sentinel, which is France’s domestic security operation since 2015.
Compulsory military service plan
- Macron said that the aim of the program is to enroll 3,000 youths in 2026, which will be increased to 10,000 by the year 2030 and to 50,000 by 2035.
- He refused to return to universal recruitment, which was suspended in France in 1996 and abolished in 2001, and for which 600,000 to 800,000 youths would need to be recruited every year.
- Macron said, “We need mobilization,” emphasizing that France should “be ready and respected” without targeting any particular enemy. He described this initiative as a response to the “rising crises” facing France.
- This announcement ends the Universal National Service Program, which is a civic engagement scheme that Macron previously supported for all youths.
Military service in European countries
- Historically, the beginning of recruitment in the military started in the time of Napoleon, when countries decided to recruit citizens together.
- Compulsory military service continues in many European countries. In Norway, which Macron described as a model, about 15% of people in each age group serve for 12 months. France currently has around 200,000 military personnel and 47,000 reservists.
- Latvia is the last European country to start compulsory recruitment in April 2023, which it had abolished in 2007. Military service is active in Cyprus, Greece, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.
- In Austria, approximately eight months of military service is compulsory for all male citizens.
- Military service is also compulsory in Denmark. Belgium and the Netherlands have started voluntary military service, and Germany is also planning something similar.
- Sweden, which has recently joined NATO, has started military service for nine to 15 months with selection based on merit.
- Some European countries such as Finland and Greece never ended military service, while Swiss men are set to vote on replacing compulsory service with compulsory civic duty for all.
