The European Rapid Operational Force (EUROFOR) was a multinational

rapid reaction force A rapid reaction force is a military or police unit designed to respond in very short time frames to emergencies. When used in reference to police forces such as SWAT teams, the time frame is minutes, while in military applications, such as with t ...

composed of forces from four states of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It had a permanent staff capable of commanding operations, involving commitments of up to a Light

Division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

in size. Eurofor was formed in May 1995 in Lisbon, and was answerable to the

Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...

(WEU) directly. It was tasked with performing

Petersberg tasks The Petersberg Declaration was adopted by ministers of the Western European Union on 19 June 1992 at Hotel Petersberg, near Bonn in Germany. It defined military tasks of a humanitarian, disarming, peacekeeping and peacemaking nature that the WEU w ...

, including humanitarian, peacekeeping and

peace enforcement Peace enforcement is the use of military force to compel peace in a conflict, generally against the will of combatants. To do this, it generally requires more military force than peacekeeping operations. The United Nations, through its Security Coun ...

missions. With the merger of several WEU elements into the

, Eurofor had by and large become part of the Common Security and Defence Policy. It was eventually transformed into an

EU Battlegroup An EU Battlegroup (EU BG) 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 ba ...

and was on standby from 1 July until 31 December 2011. On 2 July 2012, Eurofor was dissolved.

Operations

Eurofor has been involved in three deployments: *2000-2001: Mission Albania: In response to a refugee crisis in Albania following the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...

. The deployment was initially part of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

operation " Allied Harbor" and once NATO ground forces entered Kosovo, Eurofor's mission also incorporated the defence of NATO supply lines through Albania. *2003: Mission Macedonia: Under the wing of the

, as part of EUFOR Concordia. Formally, Eurofor became answerable directly to the

, through the

Political and Security Committee The Political and Security Committee (PSC; sometimes referred to by its French ''COPS'' acronym derived from ''Comité politique et de sécurité'') is a permanent body within the European Union dealing with Common Foreign and Security Policy issu ...

. This operation began on 31 March 2003 when the Macedonian authorities invited assistance with the goal of the establishment of a stable and secure environment in Macedonia (now North Macedonia). This mission officially ended on 15 December 2004. *2007:

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

References

{{Authority control Western European Union Military history of the European Union Multinational units and formations Military units and formations established in 1995 Military units and formations disestablished in 2012 Battlegroups of the European Union Florence 1995 establishments in Italy 2012 disestablishments in Italy 1995 in the European Union 2012 in the European Union Government agencies established in 1995 Government agencies disestablished in 2012

Operations

See also

References