A number of military forces across the European Union are struggling to attract recruits, despite concerted multimedia campaigns.
Problems appear to be more severe among run-down armed forces in the bloc, such as Ireland’s and Germany’s, although other more established military organisations are also said to be encountering difficulties.
According to a report by media outlet Der Spiegel, Germany has seen a 7 per cent fall in its recruitment figures so far this year despite the country’s recent efforts to “remilitarise”.
A spokesman for the Bundeswehr – the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany – attributed the lower numbers in part to an ongoing demographic decline.
Efforts to bump-up recruitment in Germany using military career centres as well as advertising campaigns on billboards and online have so far failed to yield results, with experts now seemingly pessimistic about reversing the situation.
“The trend of declining applications will continue in 2023, despite considerable efforts,” the Bundeswehr spokesman said.
Things look worse in Ireland, with the country seeing more than twice as many people leaving its defence forces than joining in 2022.
Data published in response to an Irish parliamentary question revealed that just 435 new recruits joined the country’s military last year, while 891 members left.
That is almost double the percentage of departures compared with 2021, which only saw around 25 per cent more personnel leave the Irish military than join it.
“The failure to arrest the inexorable decline in [Irish military] strength is due to the failure to address decades of neglect, the failure to implement fair and safe working conditions, and the absence of a credible retention policy,” said the general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) Lieutenant Colonel Conor King.
“We have to be honest where others are not; we cannot recruit our way out of this existential retention crisis.”
Even some of the EU’s traditionally strongest militaries are said to be experiencing recruitment and retention troubles, with a report back in May indicating that France is suffering an increasing “evaporation” of its military personnel.
A 6 per cent increase in departures from the French armed forces has reportedly outstripped the country’s recruitment efforts, leading to around 700 unfilled positions in 2021.
“We are used to having a turnover in the teams, but we had never seen this phenomenon on such a scale,” French army human resources chief Thibaut de Vanssay said.
