Eurocorps

My 2000th blog post.  I can't believe that I've been at this for over 13 years or that people still seem interested in my Czechland adventure.  Thank you to everyone who continues to follow along.

Eurocorps is a European army, of about 60.000 troops, that can be deployed on very short notice.  It was founded in 1992 by France and Germany and it went operational in 1995.  This month it celebrates its 30th anniversary.  Eurocorps' headquarters are in Strasbourg, France.
Eurocorps is at the service of the EU and NATO and in 2002, it was certified as one of NATO's nine High Readiness Land Headquarters.  Eurocorps considers requests for support from the UN and OSCE.  It can also be deployed at the request of the framework nations.

There are six framework nations - France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, and Poland.  

Any EU country can join with the unanimous approval of the framework countries.  There are also five associated nations - Austria, Greece, Türkiye, Italy, and Romania. 

Finland was an associated member from 2002 - 2006 and Canada was from 2003 - 2007.  Czech Republic isn't a member but I believe that they have participated is some military exercises with Eurocorps in the past.  I'm not aware of Czechland having any plans to join. 

Eurocorps has participated in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans as part of SFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina and KFOR in Kosovo.  It was deployed to Afghanistan as part of the UN's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).  It's even been deployed to Africa as part of EU training missions in Mali and the Central African Republic.

Poland became the newest framework member this year in January.  From 2023-2025, a Polish general will take command of Eurocorps.  With all of the support Poland has given Ukraine during the Russian invasion, I'm sure that Russia isn't thrilled with Poland soon to lead Eurocorps.

What's interesting to me Austria and Türkiye being associate members.  Türkiye is a member of NATO but not the EU so until it actually becomes an EU member, if ever, then it can't be one of the framework nations.  Austria's constitution prohibits it form entering into military alliances.  So I guess that by being an associate member it can participate in Eurocorps without violating its constitution, in the same way that it is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme without being a NATO member.

Here's a France24 video I found on YouTube from 2009 that talks about Eurocorps.

©France24