Today's Date:

On Tuesday, 30 September, Eurofor will take over the command of Operation Concordia which the European Union has been conducting in Macedonia since 31 March 2003. Major General (Portugal) Luis Nelson Ferreira dos Santos, the current Eurofor commander will take over from Major General (France) Jean-Pierre Maral, at the head of the 400 troops from 26 countries, which include 13 European nations. With his European staff (40 people) he will exercise his command in Skopje until December 2003.

This Eurofor operational commitment in an operation conducted by the European Union is more than symbolic: it highlights the European Union's determination to make a credible defence capability a reality on the ground, particularly on the continent of Europe.

"Concordia", the first operation conducted under the European Union's aegis, took over from NATO's Operation Allied Harmony on 31 March 2003 with an HQ and the teams (4 to 6 soldiers) supporting the international observers in Macedonia.

Eurofor (European Operational Rapid Force) is a non-permanent land force, created in 1996, with a permanent staff (94 people) in Florence. Four countries, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, have made rapidly deployable light forces available to the European Union. In the event of a decision by the Interministerial Euroforces Committee (Defence/Foreign Affairs) it can assemble troops of a division size, i.e. around one brigade per contributing country (5,000 per nation). It can be committed to Petersberg-type missions (peacekeeping).

The Eurofor HQ has already been committed to operations reinforcing a KFOR brigade in 2000 in Albania./.