European Gendarmerie Force


The European Gendarmerie Force is an operational, pre-organised, robust, and rapidly deployable intervention force, exclusively comprising elements of several European police forces with military status of the Parties in order to perform all police tasks within the scope of crisis management operations, as established by Art.1 of the Treaty establishing the European Gendarmerie Force.
The EGF was launched by an agreement in 2006 between five member states of the European Union : France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Romania joined in 2009; Poland in 2011. Its status is enshrined in the Treaty of Velsen of 18 October 2007. The headquarters are located in Vicenza, Italy.
The EGF is presently not established at the EU level ; it is for instance not a project of the Permanent Structured Cooperation of the CSDP. The EGF may however contribute in the implementation of the CSDP, when made available as a multinational force in accordance with article 42.3 of the Treaty on European Union.

History

The French Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie first proposed the force in September 2003. Alliot-Marie and the Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino presented the idea at the Meeting of European Union Defense Ministers in October 2003. The implementation agreement was finally signed by defence ministers of the five participating countries on 17 September 2004 in Noordwijk, Netherlands. On 23 January 2006, the EGF was officially inaugurated during a military ceremony in the Gen. Chinotto barracks in Vicenza.
The EGF was declared fully operational on 20 July 2006, following the High Level Interministerial meeting in Madrid, Spain, and its second successful Command Post exercise, which took place between 19–28 April 2006. The first CPX was held at the National Gendarmerie Training Center in Saint Astier, France in June 2005.
After Romania's accession to the European Union, the Romanian Gendarmerie sought permanent observer status with the European Gendarmerie Force, as a first step towards full membership. On March 3, 2009, the Romanian Gendarmerie became a full member of the European Gendarmerie Force.
The Polish Military Gendarmerie was originally a partner force and, on 10 October 2006, Poland indicated it would like to join the EGF. In December 2011, Poland applied for full membership in EGF, which was granted in 2011.

Missions

The EGF is based in Vicenza, in northeastern Italy, and has a core of 800 to 900 members ready to deploy within 30 days.
An additional 2,300 reinforcements are available on standby.

Members

The treaty allows for any EU member state to become a European Gendarmerie Force member state, subject to the approval of existing European Gendarmerie Force members. The member forces are:
EU Member StateInstitution
Arma dei Carabinieri
Gendarmerie nationale
Koninklijke Marechaussee
Żandarmeria Wojskowa
Guarda Nacional Republicana
Jandarmeria Română
Guardia Civil

Germany does not take part, as its constitution does not permit the use of military forces for police services. In 2004, Peter Struck, Minister of Defense at the time, clarified that the legal foundation for militarised police forces is different from the expectations underlying the EGF. The paramilitary Bereitschaftspolizei units of the Länder states have no standing patrol order like the German Federal Police. Germany did not sign the Treaty of Velsen on the EGF or any subsequent accord. Instead, there is a tight integration of police forces based on the Prüm Treaty. Originally the Prüm Treaty regulated access to police databases of neighboring countries but it was used multiple times as the legal foundation to exchange riot police equipment and personnel with the participating countries. In 2008 the Prüm Treaty was naturalised as EU law, allowing countries access to police forces regulated under EU law. The European Police Forces Training of 2009 was run in Vicenza and the EUPFT 2010 on anti-riot tactics was run in Lehnin in Germany.

Partners

The EGF has been widely misrepresented, notably with regard to its general purpose and specific relationship to the EU. The EGF is not an EU body, and has no power to intervene on the soil of the EU and its Member States, including the EGF countries.
The EGF is presently not established at the EU level ; it is for instance not a project of the Permanent Structured Cooperation of the CSDP. The EGF may however contribute in the implementation of the CSDP, when made available as a multinational force in accordance with article 42.3 of the Treaty on European Union.