Data Protection Rules Hinder German Army Expansion

[The Bread Guy]

EU data rules come to haunt Germany as it tries to regrow its military.
" ‘Crazy’ data rules hit German plans to boost army reserve"

Highlights mine ...

Strict data protection laws are hindering Germany’s efforts to swell the ranks of the armed forces of Europe’s largest nation, its reservists’ association has warned.

Patrick Sensburg, head of the Reservist Association of the German Armed Forces, said tough German and EU privacy rules meant it could not keep in contact with close to a million people who might help boost the country’s reserve forces as it sought a stronger role in European defence and security.

Sensburg said that when Germany suspended conscription in 2011, it also stopped keeping track of former conscripts.

“We have lost their contacts,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “It’s crazy.”

The problem was compounded, Sensburg said, by European data protection laws and by additional rules in Germany, where memories of both the Nazi era and communist Democratic Republic have contributed to a culture of caution concerning the collection and use of personal data ...

More from the Reservist Association of the German Armed Forces ....

... Defence minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung over the weekend that reaching the necessary number of reservists would also require “reactivating” some former soldiers.

The reservists’ association represents former national service conscripts and ex-professional soldiers as well as civilians who serve in the reserves. Sensburg said it received €24mn (~$37 million CDN) in government funding each year to provide support and training for former soldiers — and could potentially be a rich reserve of possible talent.

As well as having 115,000 paid-up members, the association also has responsibility for all 10mn people in Germany who previously did national service or were once professional soldiers.

About 9mn of these people are over 65, a reflection of the dramatic shrinking of Germany’s armed forces since the end of the cold war.

Sensburg said the association was not in contact with the remaining 1mn, which included about 93,000 people who had served in Afghanistan — a group he described as “high potential” reservists.

“We don’t even know how physically fit they are, if they would like to serve again.”

Sensburg, a former member of parliament from Merz’s ruling Christian Democrats, added that while some might be unwell or uninterested, if even only a quarter of the 1mn agreed to serve it would be enough to meet the target for reservist numbers ...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Start with a volunteer call up and see how many former soldiers sign up and perhaps have a referral program where current serving soldiers and the volunteers get a cash bonus for each successful applicant they refer.