Noordwijk, 17/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands have given the go-ahead for setting the future European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) in place. By signing a declaration of interest on Friday on the sidelines of the informal meeting of EU defence ministers, these five countries have pledged to develop the force, which should be operational by end 2005. "The European gendarmerie is an additional force for the European Union", French Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said. France and Italy are at the origin of the project.
The European Gendarmerie Force will be made up of around 800 men deployable on the ground within a maximum of 30 days, the declaration of interest states. It will also have a 2,300 strong reserve. Preparations for establishing its headquarters, in Vicenza in Italy, will begin in autumn 2004. The five countries signing the declaration aim to set up the headquarters early 2005 and to make the EGF operations by end 2005 at the latest. A multinational force, the EGF will be activated for EU missions but also for those of the UN, the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe), and NATO. With a military statute, it will, for example, be deployed after a military operation to ensure law and order, and it may also be attributed to operations to combat organised crime or to ensure protection of civil missions on the ground.
Financed by participant countries, the EGF will not be a permanent force. Its personnel will only be made available when needed, it was pointed out at a press conference on Thursday by Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp. He did not state what the various national contributions would be but hinted that some countries, like France which has larger personnel resources, could provide the large part of the force. Although it will begin with only the EU countries that currently have military-style police forces, or gendarmeries, it will be open to participation by all, Mr Kamp continued. Upon arriving in Noordwijk, German Defence Minister Peter Struck hailed the creation of the new force while confirming that his country would not take part in it.