European gendarmerie force

European gendarmerie force
The coat of arms of the European gendarmerie force
active	January 23, 2006 - Today
Country	European Union UN NATO OSCE
Type	Gendarmerie
Subordinate troops	Carabinieri ( Italy ) Gendarmerie Nationale ( France ) Guardia Civil ( Spain ) Guarda Nacional Republicana ( Portugal ) Koninklijke Marechaussee ( Netherlands ) Jandarmeria Română ( Romania ) Żandarmeria Wojskowa ( Poland )
Strength	800 active approx. 2300 reservists
permanent headquarters	Vicenza ( Italy )
motto	Lex paciferat (Latin: the law will bring peace)
commander
Current commander	Lucian Gavrilă

The European Gendarmerie Force ( Engl. : European Gendarmerie Force (EGF or Eurogendfor) , French. : Force de gendarmerie européenne (FGE)) is a European military police force (see. Gendarmerie , military police , paramilitary organization ) that the crisis management is to serve. It was declared fully operational in 2006 and is headquartered in Vicenza, Italy .

The European Gendarmerie Force can be placed under the command of the European Union , the United Nations , NATO , the OSCE and other international organizations or ad hoc coalitions.

Members

Member states of the EGF

The Eurogendfor was founded by France , Italy , Spain , Portugal and the Netherlands . It serves as a merger of the French National Gendarmerie , the Italian Carabinieri , the Spanish Guardia Civil , the Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana and the Dutch Koninklijke Marechaussee .

Romania , represented by the Jandarmeria Română , has also been a full member since December 17, 2008 . Poland has been a partner of the EGF since March 8, 2007 and has been a full member since 2011 with Żandarmeria Wojskowa . Furthermore, Lithuania has had partner status since December 2009.

The Turkey in 2009 given the status of an observing country. Azerbaijan is also showing ambitions to join the EGF.

Germany is not part of the international military force, as the separation of the police and the military is enshrined in the constitution . The German Defense Minister Peter Struck emphasized in 2004 that the tasks of the police and the armed forces “differ significantly from one another”.

Other countries that have military police can also join the European Gendarmerie Force.

Emergence

In September 2003, the French Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie proposed the creation of a European gendarmerie force. An initial letter of intent on the EGF was presented at an informal meeting of defense ministers in October . From the beginning France wanted to make the Eurogendfor multinational and similar to the existing EUFOR , while Italy wanted the new military police to be based on the Multinational Specialized Units ( MSU ), which are already active in the Balkans and Iraq on behalf of NATO . France was particularly keen to set up the EGF quickly and, above all, independently of the EU, while the other countries preferred integration within the European Union .

It turned out, however, that a European military police would be difficult to integrate into the EU due to the aversion of most EU states to the gendarmerie concept. Furthermore, there were disputes about the size of the newly emerging troops, since France and Italy, with the national gendarmerie and the carabinieri, have far more units than the Netherlands or Portugal. However, all five countries agreed that the EGF must be equipped for all kinds of policing.

The declaration was finally adopted by the defense ministers of the five EU members France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands on September 17, 2004 in Noordwijk , the Netherlands . During the negotiations it became clear that France and the Netherlands voted against the establishment of a standing army and the inclusion of the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units ( COESPU ) in the EGF.

A first successfully completed command post exercise ( CPX ) took place in June 2005 at the National Gendarmerie Training Center in Saint-Astier , France. On January 23, 2006, the EGF was officially introduced during a military ceremony in Vicenza , northeastern Italy. After a meeting of the high-level inter-ministerial committee in the Spanish capital Madrid and a second, successful exercise maneuver from 19. – 28. In April 2006 the EGF was declared fully operational on July 20, 2006.

On October 18, 2007, the Treaty of Velsen - also known as the Treaty of the European Gendarmerie Force - was signed by the then five member states. This regulates the tasks and powers of the Eurogendfor.

Area of ​​responsibility

From the outset, the EGF was intended to cover all possible forms of crisis management, whether as part of a military unit or under the command of civilian forces. The force also has the task of replacing or strengthening local police units. It can be used in any phase of crisis management: At the start of a crisis, the EGF can intervene with the military and carry out police tasks. During the stabilization phase, the European military force can carry out its mission alone, in conjunction with the military or with local police forces. Finally, during the withdrawal phase, the EGF can facilitate the transfer of competencies to the local police force.

As for crisis management, the European Gendarmerie Force is also intended for all types of police work. This includes maintaining security and public order; supervising, accompanying and advising local police forces; regulating traffic, monitoring public spaces, border controls and general education. Furthermore, the EGF must be able to carry out criminal investigation tasks - this includes the uncovering of crimes, the prosecution of criminals and their transfer to local judicial authorities.

The EGF's remit also includes the protection of people and property and the maintenance of order in the event of a “public disturbance”. The EGF must also be able to train police officers and trainers according to international standards.

structure

CIMIN

Cimin is a French acronym that stands for C Omite I nter MI nistériel de haut N par (ger .: High Level Interdepartmental Committee , German: High-Level Inter-ministerial Committee ) and the other decision-making body of the European Gendarmerie Force. It appoints the EGF commander as well as mission commanders and the chairman of the finance committee. It decides whether and to what extent the EGF participates in missions and to what extent other states can participate in Eurogendfor missions. The committee also ensures the politico-military coordination among the members and monitors the implementation of the Velsen Treaty.

A member country presides over the CIMIN for one year and can thus formulate principles of the military force for the coming year. The CIMIN presidency is awarded on a rotating basis.

The committee also includes a working group of minority representatives that meet every two months. The CIMIN itself meets at least twice a year and beyond if a member state convenes it. The first meeting of the committee took place on January 21, 2005 in Rome. All decisions must be made unanimously. It is made up of representatives from the respective member states: one representative each from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one representative from the Ministry of Defense or the Interior and the Commander-in-Chief or Director General of the participating gendarmerie troops.

commander

The commander is in charge of the permanent headquarters ( Permanent HQ ) as well as all armed forces within the Eurogendfor and issues regulations that guarantee the functioning of the HQ. He is also responsible for the implementation of commands from the CIMIN and compiles cost plans and financial reports.

He will hold his office for two years:

Commanders of the European Gendarmerie Forces

No.	Rank	Surname	Taking office	Term expires	EU state
1	Brigadier General	Gérard Deanaz	January 25, 2005	June 26, 2007	France
2	Colonel	Giovanni Truglio	June 26, 2007	June 25, 2009	Italy
3	Colonel	Jorge Esteves	June 26, 2009	June 28, 2011	Portugal
4th	Colonel	Cornelis Kuijs	June 29, 2011	June 28, 2013	Netherlands
5	Colonel	Francisco Esteban Pérez	June 28, 2013	June 26, 2015	Spain
6th	Brigadier General	Philippe Rio	June 26, 2015	June 27, 2017	France
7th	Colonel	Lucian Gavrilă	June 27, 2017	June 26, 2019	Romania
8th	Colonel	Giuseppe Zirone	June 26, 2019	In office	Italy

Armed forces

The force has a core of 800–900 members. Italy provides 800 gendarmes, France 600, Spain 500, Portugal 160 and the Netherlands 100. A further 2,300 men are available for reinforcement.

Calls

Bosnia and Herzegovina

On November 22, 2007, the EGF performed its first mission as part of the EUFOR Althea mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina . She took over the management of the Integrated Police Unit ( IPU ), whose main task is on the one hand to obtain information and on the other hand to implement the Dayton Agreement .

For many Member States the participation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was not new, only the coordination by the EGF represented a novelty. In addition to Eurogendfor members Turkey and later Member Romania contributed one of the two anti-riot units, while Hungary is involved with two of the seven investigation units. Portugal has deployed a total of 177 units in Bosnia since 2007.

On October 20, 2010, the EGF mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina officially ended. Spain, Portugal and Italy have withdrawn their quotas by October 31, 2010.

Afghanistan

In June 2009, thought was given for the first time to deploying the European Gendarmerie Force in Afghanistan to train local police forces. The EGF's Afghanistan operation started on December 8, 2009 in cooperation with the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan ( NTM-A ). The main task of the military police force is to support and train the local Afghan police forces and to set standards for their training. A special focus is placed on the Afghan National Civil Order Police ( ANCOP ), which is currently the gendarmerie in Afghanistan. The EGF's official activation ceremony in Afghanistan took place on December 24, 2009.

In addition to an older training center in Adraskan , a new training center opened in Mazar-e Sharif in 2009 is used to train Afghan police forces.

“ Our mission involves three types of activities, ” said Colonel Jorge Esteves . “ We provide experts to the mission headquarters in Kabul, we train the Afghan police and we send liaison teams between the training and the operational part in the various provinces. Of these three tasks, it is clear that the second is of course the most important. "

With the Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team ( POMLT ), which was already active in Afghanistan, 196 gendarmes were active in Afghanistan at the beginning, and around 400 in 2011. The quota is currently falling, as the tasks are handed over to the Afghan authorities over time.

Haiti

After the United Nations had informally asked the EU for support for the UN mission Minustah , the EU foreign ministers decided on January 25, 2010 in Brussels that around 300 gendarmes should be sent to the earthquake region of Haiti . At the ministerial meeting, the United Kingdom spoke out against the deployment of the police force, justifying this with the strong presence of the United States , which made further EU aid troops superfluous. Most of the troops were provided by France and Italy.

A few days after the decision of the EU foreign ministers, on February 8, 2010, the mission of the European troops to the island nation began. The main task of the European Gendarmerie Force in Haiti was to provide accommodation for the population. These were particularly necessary for the Haitians due to the rainy and hurricane seasons.

Miguel Ángel Moratinos , President of the Council of the European Union at the time of the testimony , described the EGF mission in Haiti as follows: "Together we represent the EU in matters of security and guarantee the arrival of humanitarian aid that the Haitians need"

The EUROGENDFOR mission in Haiti ended on December 3, 2010.

Central African Republic

In order to improve the security situation in the Central African Republic , more than 100 EGF gendarmes were sent to the capital Bangui from April 1st 2014 . There they should ensure compliance with the laws in force in various neighborhoods.

At the beginning, the gendarmerie force was deployed as part of the EU military mission EUFOR RCA . On March 15, 2015, the EU's successor mission, EUMAM RCA, replaced the EUFOR mission. As a result, the European gendarmerie force is only active in an advisory capacity. EUMAM RCA works with the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSCA .

Mali

Since April 17, 2014, twelve EGF gendarmes have been deployed in Mali, West Africa . There they train the country's gendarmerie and national guard. The deployment is carried out under the EUCAP Sahel Mali mission , which functions as part of the European Union's common security and defense policy .

Ukraine

From January 9th to February 7th 2016, the EGF sent four trainers to the Ukrainian capital Kiev . There they taught 29 police trainers how to deal with riots and crowds. The training took place as part of the EUAM-Ukraine advisory mission .

coat of arms

The EGF coat of arms

The cross-shaped sword symbolizes honor, freedom and strength, the wreath half made of laurel and oak leaves for civil and military status, and the inflamed grenade stands for the common military roots of the police forces. The EGF's motto is “Lex paciferat” (Latin: the law will bring peace).

Web links

• Official website of the European Gendarmerie Forces

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article 5. (PDF; 92 KB) Framework for the missions. In: TREATY Between the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Portuguese Republic, establishing the European Gendarmerie Force EUROGENDFOR. October 18, 2007, p. 4 , accessed March 4, 2020 (British English, hosted on Statewatch ): “EUROGENDFOR may be placed at disposal of the European Union (EU) and also of the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other international organizations or an ad hoc coalition. " 
2. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: Main page (English).
3. ↑ Jandarmeriaromana.eu: Multinational cooperation (English).
4. ↑ Żandarmeria Wojskowa: European Gendarmerie Force (English).
5. ↑ Vstarnyba.lt: Public Security Service of the Republic of Lithuania - partner of European gendarmerie force ( Memento of February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
6. ↑ Turkish press review: Turkey to integrate EGF as an observer .
7. ↑ Republic of Turkey - Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Press Release Regarding the Participation of Turkey in the European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) in Observer Status ( Memento from June 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
8. ↑ News.az: Azerbaijan to join European Gendarmerie Force ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
9. ↑ ^{a b} Derstandard.at: What powers does the European gendarmerie force have?
10. ↑ Lalibre.be: Des gendarmes européens en renfort (French).
11. ^ Jean-Paul Hanon: Policiers et militaires en Allemagne: le nouvel agencement. (French).
12. ^ Clingersael.nl: The potential of the European Gendarmerie Force (English, PDF; 376 kB).
13. ^ ^{A b c} Giovanni Arcudi and Michael E. Smith: The European Gendarmerie Force: a solution in search of problems? In: European Security. 22, 2013, pp. 1–20, doi: 10.1080 / 09662839.2012.747511 (English).
14. ↑ ^{a b} Realinstitutoelcano.org: The new European Gendarmerie Force (English).
15. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: Declaration of Intent (English).
16. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: Eurogend 2005-1 ( memento of October 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
17. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: EGEX 06 ( Memento of October 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
18. ↑ TREATY. (PDF; 92 KB) Between the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Portuguese Republic, establishing the European Gendarmerie Force EUROGENDFOR. October 18, 2007, p. 18 , accessed March 4, 2020 (British English, hosted on Statewatch ): "Signed at Velsen, on October 18, 2007 ..." 
19. ↑ Article 4. (PDF; 92 KB) Missions and tasks. In: TREATY Between the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Portuguese Republic, establishing the European Gendarmerie Force EUROGENDFOR. October 18, 2007, p. 4 , accessed March 4, 2020 (British English, hosted on Statewatch ). 
20. ↑ Article 7. (PDF; 92 KB) CIMIN. In: TREATY Between the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Portuguese Republic, establishing the European Gendarmerie Force EUROGENDFOR. October 18, 2007, p. 5 , accessed March 4, 2020 (British English, hosted on Statewatch ). 
21. ↑ Article 8. (PDF; 92 KB) EGF Commander. In: TREATY Between the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Portuguese Republic, establishing the European Gendarmerie Force EUROGENDFOR. October 18, 2007, p. 6 , accessed March 4, 2020 (British English, hosted on Statewatch ). 
22. ^ Former Eurogend for Commanders. In: EUROGENDFOR. Retrieved February 6, 2020 (UK English). 
23. ↑ Commander. In: EUROGENDFOR. Retrieved February 6, 2020 (UK English). 
24. ↑ Au.af: Constabulary Forces and Postconflict Transition: The Euro-Atlantic dimension (English, PDF, 235 kB).
25. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: EGF participation to Althea (English).
26. ↑ Council Conclusions on ESDP: Paragraph 16 (PDF, 188 kB), 19-20. November 2007. (English).
27. ↑ Jornaldigital.com: GNR termina participação na missão militar na Bósnia ( Memento of July 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , September 6, 2010. (Portuguese).
28. ↑ Theportugalnews.com: Portuguese involvement in EU military mission to Bosnia “completed” , September 11, 2010. (English).
29. ↑ Europa.eu: Bulletin of the European Union 6/2009 (English).
30. ↑ Defensie.nl: Kamerbrief inzake Nederlandse deelname aan bijdrage EGF in Afghanistan ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Dutch).
31. ↑ Ilgiornaledivicenza.it: La Gendarmeria di Vicenza crea i “carabinieri” afgani ( Memento of March 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Italian).
32. ↑ eurogendfor.org: EUROGENDFOR mission in Afghanistan and doctrinal PHQ contributions (English).
33. ↑ Zeit.de: Help for Haiti: EU wants to send 300 gendarmes to Haiti , January 25, 2010.
34. ↑ ^{a b} Euronews: European gendarmes to beef up Haiti security , January 25, 2010. (English).
35. ↑ Council of the European Union: Press release (PDF; 97 kB), February 22, 2010. (English).
36. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: EUROGENDFOR mission in Central African Republic (English)
37. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: EUROGENDFOR mission in Mali (English)
38. ↑ Eurogendfor.org: EUROGENDFOR supports EUAM Ukraine and Ukrainian police (English)
39. ↑ Euam-ukraine.eu: Public order techniques on display at EUAM training (English)
40. ↑ Logo and motto. In: EUROGENDFOR. Retrieved July 13, 2019 (UK English).