EU Battlegroup

EU Battlegroup
Active	2007–present
Country	European Union
Branch	Army
Type	Rapid reaction force
Size	18 battalions, including: *14 battalions with ~1,500 soldiers *4 battalions with ~2,500 soldiers (two of which are ready for deployment at all times)
Part of	European Union Military Staff

An EU Battlegroup (EUBG) is a military unit adhering to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union (EU). Often based on contributions from a coalition of member states, each of the eighteen Battlegroups consists of a battalion-sized force (1,500 troops) reinforced with combat support elements.^[1][2] The groups rotate actively, so that two are ready for deployment at all times. The forces are under the direct control of the Council of the European Union.

The Battlegroups reached full operational capacity on 1 January 2007, although, as of March 2015 they are yet to see any military action.^[3] They are based on existing ad hoc missions that the European Union (EU) has undertaken and has been described by some as a new "standing army" for Europe.^[2] The troops and equipment are drawn from the EU member states under a "lead nation". In 2004, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the plans and emphasised the value and importance of the Battlegroups in helping the UN deal with troublespots.^[4]

Background

Battlegroups or battle groups as a combined arms military unit, based around an infantry battalion or armoured regiment, are not a new concept. However, the initial ideas for specific EU Battlegroups began at the European Council summit on 10–11 December 1999 in Helsinki. The Council produced the Headline Goal 2003 and specified the need for a rapid response capability that members should provide in small forces at high readiness. The idea was reiterated at a Franco-British summit on 4 February 2003 in Le Touquet which highlighted as a priority the need to improve rapid response capabilities, "including initial deployment of land, sea and air forces within 5–10 days."^[5] This was again described as essential in the "Headline Goal 2010".

Operation Artemis in 2003 showed an EU rapid reaction and deployment of forces in a short time scale – with the EU going from Crisis Management Concept to operation launch in just three weeks, then taking a further 20 days for substantial deployment. Its success provided a template for the future rapid response deployments allowing the idea to be considered more practically. The following Franco-British summit in November of that year stated that, building on the experience of the operation, the EU should be able and willing to deploy forces within 15 days in response to a UN request. It called specifically for "Battlegroup sized forces of around 1500 land forces, personnel, offered by a single nation or through a multinational or framework nation force package.

On 10 February 2004, France, Germany and the United Kingdom released a paper outlining the "Battlegroup concept". The document proposed a number of groups based on Artemis that would be autonomous, consisting of 1500 personnel and deployable within 15 days. These would be principally in response to UN requests at short notice and can be rapidly tailored to specific missions. They would concentrate on bridging operations, preparing the group before a larger force relieved them, for example UN or regional peacekeepers under UN mandate. The plan was approved by all groups in 2004 and in November that year the first thirteen Battle Groups were pledged with associated niche capabilities.^[6]

Tasks

The groups are intended to be deployed on the ground within 5–10 days of approval from the Council. It must be sustainable for at least 30 days, which could be extended to 120 days, if resupplied.^[7]

The Battle Groups are designed to deal with those tasks faced by the Common Security and Defence Policy, namely the Petersberg tasks (military tasks of a humanitarian, peacekeeping and peacemaking nature).

Planners claim the Battle Groups have enough range to deal with all those tasks, although such tasks ought to be limited in "size and intensity" due to the small nature of the groups. Such missions may include conflict prevention, evacuation, aid deliverance or initial stabilisation. In general these would fall into three categories; brief support of existing troops, rapid deployment preparing the ground for larger forces or small scale rapid response missions.^[8]

Structure

A Battlegroup is considered to be the smallest self-sufficient military unit that can be deployed and sustained in a theatre of operation. EU Battlegroups are composed of approximately 1500 troops; plus command and support services.

There is no fixed structure, a 'standard' group would include a headquarters company, three infantry companies and corresponding support personnel. Specific units might include mechanised infantry, support groups (e.g. fire or medical support), the combination of which allows independent action by the group on a variety of tasks. The main forces, extra support and "force headquarters" (front line command) are contained within the Battlegroup "package", in addition there is the operation headquarters, located in Europe.^[9]

Contributions

Larger member states will generally contribute their own Battle Groups, while smaller members are expected to create common groups. Each group will have a 'lead nation' or 'framework nation' which will take operational command, based on the model set up during the EU's peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Operation Artemis). Each group will also be associated with a headquarters. Two non-EU NATO countries, Norway and Turkey, participate in a group each.

The initial thirteen Battle Groups^[10] were proposed on 22 November 2005. Further groups have joined them since then. The declared groups are as follows:

Battle group	Framework nation	Other participants*	Size
French Battle Group	France	none	???
Italian Battle Group	Italy	none	???
Spanish Battle Group	Spain	none	???
British Battle Group	United Kingdom	Sweden (CBRN/RADAR) 2013, Netherlands AATV Troop 2013, Latvia Coy 2013, Lituania Coy 2013	???
French-German Battle Group	France	Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain	???
French-Belgian Battle Group	France	Belgium	???
Battle Group 107[11]	Germany	Netherlands and Finland	1500
German-Czech-Austrian Battle Group	Germany	Czech Republic, Croatia, Ireland and Austria	???
Italian-Hungarian-Slovenian Battle Group	Italy	Hungary and Slovenia	???
Hispano–Italian Amphibious Battle Group	Italy	Spain, Greece and Portugal	1500
Battle Group I-2010	Poland	Germany, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania	2500
Nordic Battle Group	Sweden 2008, 2011, (2015)	Finland, Estonia,[12] Latvia,[12] Lithuania[12] Ireland and Norway[13][14]	2200
UK-Dutch Battle Group	United Kingdom	Netherlands	???
Balkan Battle Group	Greece	Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania[15]	1500
Czech-Slovak Battle Group	Czech Republic	Slovak Republic[16]	2500
Spanish-led Battle Group[17]	Spain	Germany, France and Portugal	???
Italian-Romanian-Turkish Battle Group[17]	Italy	Romania and Turkey	???
Weimar Battle Group[18]	Poland	Germany and France	2200

Planned battle groups	Framework nation	Other participants*	Size	Year operational
Visegrád Battle Group[19]	Poland	Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia	3000	2016

Former battle groups	Framework nation	Other participants*	Size	Decommissioning
Eurofor[20]	Portugal	Spain, Italy, France	???	2012

* EU Battlegroups are not permanent, they are created on an ad hoc basis to fill the roster. Formations are not strict either and can be disbanded or reformulated

There are plans to extend the concept to air and naval forces, although not to the extent of having a single standing force on standby, but scattered forces which could be rapidly assembled.^[21]

Denmark has an opt-out clause in its accession treaty and is not obliged to participate in the common defence policy. Also Malta currently does not participate in any Battle Group.

Niche capabilities

The following Member States have also offered niche capabilities in support of the EU Battle Groups:^[22]

• Cyprus (medical group)
• Lithuania (a water purification unit)
• Greece (the Athens Sealift Co-ordination Centre)
• France (structure of a multinational and deployable Force Headquarters)

Further details on specific contributions

• Sweden and Finland announced the creation of a joint Nordic Battle Group. To make up the required 1500 number, they also urged Norway to contribute in the Battle Group despite the country not being part of the EU. Recently, the number has been raised to 2400 troops with Sweden providing 2000 of these. According to Swedish newspapers the price for the 6 months in 2008 was 1.2 billion Swedish kronor (app. 150,000,000 euros) and the Battle Group was not used.^[23]

• Finland is expected to commit troops trained to combat chemical and biological weapons, among other units such as a mortar company.

• Lithuania is expected to offer experts in water purification.

• Greece is pledging troops with maritime transport skills.

• Ireland has offered bomb disposal experts among its contribution.

The Battle Groups project is not to be confused with the projected Helsinki Headline Goal force, which concerns up to 60,000 soldiers, deployable for at least a year, and take one to two months to deploy. The Battle Groups are instead meant for more rapid and shorter deployment in international crises, probably preparing the ground for a larger and more traditional force to replace them in due time.

Standby roster

From 1 January 2005 the Battle Groups reached initial operational capacity: at least one Battle Group was on standby every 6 months. The United Kingdom and France each had an operational Battle Group for the first half of 2005, and Italy for the second half. In the first half of 2006, a Franco-German Battle Group operated, and the Hispano–Italian Amphibious Battle Group. In the second half of that year just one Battle Group operated composed of France, Germany and Belgium.^[24]

Full operational capacity was reached on 1 January 2007, meaning the Union could undertake two Battle Group sized operations concurrently, or deploy them simultaneously into the same field. The Battle Groups rotate every 6 months, the roster from 2007 onwards is as follows;^[25][26]

Period		Battle Group	Lead Nation	Force HQ (FHQ)
2007	Jan–Jun	French - Belgian Battle Group	France	Paris
		Battle Group 107	Germany	Potsdam
	Jul–Dec	Italian - Hungarian - Slovenian Battle Group	Italy	Rome
		Balkan Battle Group	Greece	Larissa
2008	Jan–Jun	Nordic Battle Group	Sweden	Enköping
		Spanish-led Battle Group	Spain
	Jul–Dec	French - German based Battle Group	Germany	Paris
		British Battle Group	United Kingdom	London
2009	Jan–Jun	Hispano–Italian Amphibious Battle Group	Italy
		Battle Group Greece	Greece	tbd
	Jul–Dec	French Battle Group	France	tbd
		Battle Group Belgium	Belgium	tbd
2010	Jan–Jun	Battle Group I-2010	Poland	Międzyrzecz
		UK – Dutch Battle Group	United Kingdom	tbd
	Jul–Dec	Italian - Romanian - Turkish Battle Group	Italy	Rome
		Spain, France, Portugal	tbd	tbd
2011	Jan–Jun	Battle Group 107	Netherlands	tbd
		Nordic Battle Group	Sweden	Enköping
	Jul–Dec	Eurofor[20][27]	Portugal	Mont-Valérien
		Balkan Battle Group[20]	Greece	Larissa
2012	Jan–Jun	France, Belgium, Luxembourg	France	Mont-Valérien
		tbd	tbd	tbd
	Jul–Dec	Multinational Land Force	Italy	Rome
		Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Macedonia, Ireland	Germany	Ulm
2013	Jan–Jun	Weimar Battle Group	Poland	Międzyrzecz
		tbd
	Jul–Dec	42 Battle Group	United Kingdom
		London
2014	Jan–Jun	Balkan Battle Group
		tbd
	Jul–Dec	Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain
		Spain, Netherlands, Macedonia
2015	Jan–Jun	Nordic Battle Group	Sweden	France[28]
		tbd
	Jul–Dec	Belgium, France
		tbd

Wargames

In 2008, the EU Battle Group conducted wargames to protect the first-ever free elections in the imaginary country of Vontinalys.^[29]

Western Balkans Battle Group

In 2010, a group of experts from the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy proposed the establishment of a Western Balkans Battle Group by 2020. In a policy vision titled "Towards a Western Balkans Battle Group: A vision of Serbia's Defence Integration into the EU 2010-2020",^[30] they argued that the creation of such a Battle Group would not only be an accelerating factor in the accession of the former Yugoslav republics into the EU but also a strong symbolic message of reconciliation and security community reconstruction after the devastating wars of the 1990s. Furthermore, the authors of the study argued that such a Western Balkan Battle Group, notwithstanding all the political challenges, would have a very high linguistic, cultural and military interoperability. Although decision makers initially showed a weak interest in the Western Balkans Battle Group, the idea has recently reappeared in the parliamentary discussions in Serbia ^[31]

See also

• Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF)
• EUFOR
• Eurocorps
• European Gendarmerie Force
• European Maritime Force
• European Union Military Staff

References

External links

• Factsheet on Battlegroups – Council of the European Union
• Factsheet on Battlegroups – European Parliament
• Enter the EU Battlegroups, Chaillot Paper No. 97, February 2007, European Union Institute for Security Studies
• "Headline Goal 2010" (PDF). European Union. 18 June 2004. Retrieved 2006-08-26. 

Foreign relations of the European Union   Bilateral relations Africa & the Middle East Cape Verde Iran Iraq Israel Jordan Lebanon Morocco Palestine† South Africa Syria Yemen Americas Argentina Brazil Canada Cuba Greenland Mexico United States Asia-Pacific Australia China (People's Republic of) Fiji India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Nepal North Korea Pakistan Philippines South Korea Europe & Central Asia Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Faroe Islands Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Kosovo† Liechtenstein Macedonia‡ Moldova Monaco Montenegro Northern Cyprus (Turkish Republic of)† Norway Russia San Marino Serbia Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Vatican City General Members’ overseas territories Largest trading partners Association agreements Free trade agreements †= Disputed state, may not be recognised as an independent state by some or all European Union members. ‡= Name disputed by Greece, EU recognises the Republic of Macedonia as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.   Multilateral relations and initiatives Organisations Arab League ASEAN ECHR G8 ICC United Nations Initiatives African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Asia–Europe Meeting CARIFORUM Customs Union Eastern Partnership Energy Community Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly European Common Aviation Area European Economic Area Euro-Mediterranean free trade area Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Euronest Economic Partnership Agreements EU CBRN Risk Mitigation CoE Initiative Neighbourhood Policy Northern Dimension Mediterranean Union Stabilisation and Association Process   Organisation Policy Common Foreign and Security Policy Economic Relations Everything but Arms Security and Defence Policy Enlargement Actors ECHO EuropeAid External Action Service Foreign Affairs Council High Representative Catherine Ashton Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Policy Instruments Service Diplomatic missions of the EU / to the EU Ambassadors Special Representatives   Military and security Initiatives Defence Initiative Synchronised Armed Forces Defence Procurement Petersberg tasks Helsinki Headline Goal Structures Political and Security Committee Military Committee Military Staff Operations Centre Security & Defence College Defence Agency Institute for Security Studies Satellite Centre Joint Situation Centre Forces European Union Force Eurofor Eurocorps EU Battlegroup EU Gendarmerie Force EU Maritime Force Deployments