The plan of Jean-Claude Juncker, which envisages the EU to have a "common military force " with a headquarters in Brussels , caused an alarm among the countries which are in the first line of the Eastern Europe -  in the neighborhood of Russia , writes The Times.

Yesterday the President of the European Commission introduced the defense of the European security through the lens of his project, as relaunching the EU, after the UK referendum held in June, writes the article. " Europe can no longer afford to piggy-back on the military might of others,” said Juncker in Strasbourg during his 50-minute speech addressed to the European Parliament.  “We have to take responsibility for protecting our interests and the European way of life.”

Eastern European countries, led by Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia , and supported by Poland, criticize this plan, since the EU army will undermine NATO’s control over the "Russian aggression", which is an experienced protection for Europe, reports the Times.

The Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics spoke against the programs that might create competition for the NATO in a time period, when the countries should concentrate their efforts in the Baltics and Poland to strengthen the presence of NATO in order to counter the strengthened Russia led by Vladimir Putin, reports the paper.

“We take a very sceptical view on the idea of creation of an EU army,” he said. “We do not see the mechanism on how you make ¬decisions on the deployment of an EU army… The European parliament? We are not at a point where ¬national parliaments would be willing to authorise this.”