European Union Force

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EUFOR former Commander General David Leakey.

Soldier of the EUFOR participating in operation Spring Lift, as part of Althea.

EUFOR badge in close up.

Troops from different countries attended a handover ceremony.

The EUFOR or European Union Force is an international military force under the supervision of the European Council. It is best known for operation Althea; their current involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the NATO-led SFOR on the 2nd of December 2004. The EUFOR is led by the Political and Security Committee, and the civilian implementation of the agreement lies in the hands of the Office of High Representative. The efforts of both are coordinated by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.

EUFOR has around 7,000 personnel from 33 countries, mostly from the countries of the European Union. There are however, additional troops from other European countries and also some from Canada and elsewhere. As of 2005, this is the largest purely European military operation.

EUFOR's commander is currently Major General Gian Marco Chiarini, having taken over command from the British Major General David Leakey in a ceremony held in the Butmir Base on 6 December 2005, where David Leakey handed over the EU flag to Major General Gian Marco Chiarini in presence of key personalities of the European Union, such as Javier Solana and General Sir John Reith. The forces are subordinate to the EU via a strategic level headquarters established at NATO's Headquarters Allied Command Operations, under the deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander, the aforementioned Sir Reith. Although both these officers were British, they operated in an international capacity on behalf of the EU.

The EUFOR will assume all the missions of the SFOR, but the chase for war criminals, notably Radovan Karadžić, former leader of Republika Srpska, and Ratko Mladić, their former military leader, will be a mission for both the EU and NATO.

The EUFOR will also have police duties (The Times) against organised crime, which is believed to be linked to war criminals. The EUFOR will collaborate with the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia (EUPM) and with the Bosnian police.

1 EUFOR RD Congo
2 In fiction
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] EUFOR RD Congo

On 25 April 2006, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1671 (2006), authorising the temporary deployment of a EU force to support the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) during the period encompassing the elections in the DR Congo, which began on 30 July.

The European Council approved the launching of the EU military operation and appointed Lieutenant General Karlheinz Viereck (Germany) Operation Commander and Major General Christian Damay (France) EU Force Commander. Operational Headquarters are based in Potsdam, Germany.

Code-named EUFOR RD Congo, the mission was tasked with: supporting and providing security to MONUC installations and personnel, contributing to airport protection in Kinshasa, contributing to the protection of civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, and to execute evacuation operations in case of emergency.[1]

[edit] In fiction

A booster pack for the PC game Battlefield 2 is available, entitled 'Euro Force'. As the name suggests, it adds the European Union to the game, however the army in the game appears to be an army fighting for a Unified European State, and not a joint force like the EUFOR is currently.