Today's Date:

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today, in Vicenza, for an event which, I am sure of it, is a major step in the European defence building process.

The spectacular progress of the European Security and Defence Policy over recent years shows that the security of Europe is more than ever a responsibility of the Europeans.

More than ever, the European Union is called to play a major part in resolving international crises.

In order to take on this role, Europe must have the adapted and reactive tools that enable it to intervene at any stage in the development of a crisis.

As it seemed essential to me to provide the Europeans with this capability, I suggested the creation of the European Gendarmerie Force to my counterparts.

Based on my experience in the foreign theatres of operation, where French troops are deployed, I could indeed see that the Gendarmerie is a particularly qualified force in these provisional situations between war and peace.

We have made significant progress since the Declaration of Intent was signed in September 2004 in the Netherlands.

Today, the headquarters has already been working for a year, and is able to draw lessons from from this.

I want to congratulate the headquarters for the significant work achieved since it was set up (…).

The quality of the people involved in this project, their determination, make me particularly confident in EGF's ability to take up the challenges of the coming months.

The first and most significant forthcoming challenge is the operational use of EGF.

I wish EGF to be deployed as early as in this year. We have to think together about the possible future commitments.

France will provide the necessary support to make this commitment easier.

EGF's first deployment must be a success.

Moreover, it will have to be visible, in order to reinforce the credibility of the European defence vis-à-vis our partners, and to enable our fellow citizens to be more involved in our action.

Indeed, I am absolutely convinced that the future of Europe depends on setting up concrete and visible projects, like the one that is bringing us here today.

This is how we will restore the Europeans' appetite for Europe.

This is also how they will take ownership of the task of building tomorrow’s Europe: a Europe that listens to their needs and expectations, a Europe that is ready to defend their interests and values in the world./.