EUFOR Concordia was a
European Union (EU) peacekeeping mission in the
Republic of North Macedonia, which started on 31 March 2003. The EU took over from NATO's operation
Allied Harmony
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
and deployed around 300 troops to provide security to EU and
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors overseeing the implementation of the
Ohrid Framework Agreement
The Ohrid Framework Agreement ( mk, Охридски рамковен договор, Ohridski ramkoven dogovor) was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) and representatives of the Albanian m ...
, a peace settlement resolving the conflict between the government and country's ethnic Albanian community.
It thus became the first ever military operation of the EU.
While keeping EU's control over the entire chain of command the mission closely cooperated with
NATO through transparency and regular consultations and its headquarters were at the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in
Mons
Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...
.
suggested fully autonomous EU operation but
United Kingdom and
Germany feared it will be perceived as antagonistic to NATO.
EUFOR Concordia was a significant event in the evolution of the EU's security cooperation. In the words of the then EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, when the Common European Foreign and Security Policy started only about a decade before, in 1992, "
w then believed that... we would send out men in arms under the EU's flag."
On 15 December 2003 the EUFOR Concordia was replaced by an EU Police Mission, code-named EUPOL PROXIMA, and the 400 EU soldiers were replaced by 200 EU police officers.
References
Military ground operations of the European Union
2003 in the Republic of Macedonia
2003 in the European Union
North Macedonia–European Union relations
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