Caceres, 11/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - After the discussion of the Balkans at the "Gymnich" type Council in Caceres on Friday (see EUROPE of 9 February, p.5) the Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique said that broader consensus was emerging around the European Union's Rapid Reaction Force making its first military intervention in Macedonia. He played down the Spanish Presidency's initial burst of enthusiasm but noting that a lot of preparatory work still needed to be carried out and that the European military force would not be able to start a mission in Macedonia before the summer. The High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, said that Macedonia had expressed willingness to request that the current NATO mission, Amber Fox, be extended by three months at the end of March and then by a further three months after that, explaining that the EU would see whether this period of time could be shared between NATO and the EU and the EU was currently at the stage of liaising with NATO and negotiations would have to continue. The idea of a military intervention in Macedonia is supported by France and Spain in particular but most Member States are more circumspect since they feel that agreemnt on how NATO's command capacities are to be used in operations led by the EU had to be reached first. Greece is vetoing an agreement with NATO because of its dispute with Turkey but said in a press release that it could support EU intervention based on a special resolution for Macedonia but this would in no way set a precedent for the institutional EU-NATO solution.