Conscription lottery to beef up German military on the cards – Euractiv

            The lottery concept is often compared to the Danish model, where conscription is mandatory, but only a small amount is ever called up due to the high amount of volunteers          <br>Germany&#8217;s two governing parties have reached a provisional agreement on revising the country&#8217;s military service, suggesting a lottery-based model should the yearly “conscription/army” fail to reach its mark, according to media reports.<br>Delayed by government infighting between the two coalition partners, Germany&#8217;s parliament is now set to discuss a new compromise on possible military conscription.<br>The agreement envisions a randomly selected screening and interview of all males who have completed the forthcoming mandatory questionnaire, according to the <em><a href="https://www.rnd.de/politik/wehrdienst-losverfahren-bei-wehrpflicht-geplant-kompromiss-von-union-und-spd-SLKVDSZXAZHYFJ2OOAOIWLCJUQ.html">RND media network</a></em>. Should not enough volunteers sign up for the military service, a number of those screened will be conscripted to the six-month military service.<br>The two coalition parties agreed to define more concretely how a sufficient number of servicemen would be reached, after the <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/news/germany-brings-back-conscription-as-recruiting-falls-short/">initial proposal</a> by centre-left defence minister Boris Pistorius was criticised by his conservative coalition partners for being too vague on when and how forced conscription would come into effect.<br>A precise figure of how many soldiers are needed is still to be defined by Pistorius. Germany has committed to about 260,000 soldiers by 2035, in addition to 200,000 reservists who will mainly stem from the six-month military service, as all participants will automatically be part of the reserve.<br>The lottery concept is often compared to the Danish model, where conscription is mandatory, but only a small amount is ever called up due to the high amount of volunteers.<br>After Germany&#8217;s two coalition partners have discussed the revision on Tuesday, the proposal will be made public on Wednesday and possibly debated in parliament on Thursday.<br>Defence<br>                    Germany plans a revamped form of mandatory military service as part of a broader overhaul&hellip;               <br>                    3 minutes               <br>                    <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="486" src="https://www.euractiv.com/content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/GettyImages-2231621244-800x486.jpg" class="c-news-link__img" alt="Germany brings back possible conscription as recruiting falls short" />            <br>        <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/news/germany-brings-back-conscription-as-recruiting-falls-short/" class="after:absolute after:inset-0"></a> <br>(cp)<br>Defence<br>Politics<br>Politics<br>Economy<br>Tech<br>Defence<br>Defence<br>Defence<br>Defence<br>Defence<br>Agrifood<br>Defence<br>Defence<br>Global Europe<br>Global Europe<br>                    &copy; <time    datetime="2025">2025</time>                     Euractiv.                   All rights reserved.                <br><br><a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilgFBVV95cUxPMGl5RC1KdEN1WE1uSE94WWhnM0V6OE9KbnhKYzVoYVljWXdfMzZGcmFNTHphM2ZEZENIbWRYdk5qQnU3VVhUU3R1Z085VTdJMHMtY1preWoxN29SdHU5Z2tPQXFXc3gteFluZWN0aXM5aVE3RU9QOGVYeHdrNUk1YVlkMUZtZTUza24tSFdyUFM0ci10MWc?oc=5">source</a>