EUFOR Althea
European Union Force Althea (EUFOR Althea) is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in place.[1] It replaced SFOR on 2 December 2004.
General Aspects
Civilian implementation of the Dayton Agreement is enforced by the Office of High Representative. EUFOR has 2,503 troops from 27 countries,[2] mostly from the countries of the European Union. There are however, additional troops from other countries such as Chile and Turkey.
EUFOR's commander is currently Major General Friedrich Schrötter (Austria), since March 2016. For this mission, the European Union Military Staff is using NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) as the EU's Operational Headquarters (OHQ) and is working through the Deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a European officer.
The EUFOR assumed all the missions of the SFOR, except for the hunt for individuals indicted by the war criminals tribunal, notably Radovan Karadžić, former leader of Republika Srpska, and Ratko Mladić, their former military leader, which remained a mission for NATO[1] through NATO Headquarters Sarajevo.[3] The EUFOR does have police duties against organised crime, which is believed to be linked to suspected war criminals.[4] It worked with the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUPM) and with the Bosnian Police. The European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina provides political guidance on military issues with a local political dimension to the EUFOR.
As of September 2012, the total force of EUFOR are at 900 troops from 26 nations. The Troop-Contributing Nations (TCNS) are as follows: from the EU: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK; and from outside the EU: Albania, Chile, Macedonia, Switzerland, and Turkey.[5]
Commanders
| No. | Nation | Rank | Name | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United Kingdom |
Major General | David Leakey | 02.12.2004 – 06.12.2005 |
| 2 |  Italy |
Major General | Gian Marco Chiarini | 06.12.2005 – 05.12.2006 |
| 3 |  Germany |
Rear Admiral | Hans-Jochen Witthauer | 05.12.2006 – 04.12.2007 |
| 4 |  Spain |
Major General | Ignacio Martín Villalaín[6] | 04.12.2007 – 04.12.2008 |
| 5 | Italy |
Major General | Stefano Castagnotto | 04.12.2008 – 03.12.2009 |
| 6 |  Austria |
Major General | Bernhard Bair | 04.12.2009 – 06.12.2011 |
| 7 | Austria |
Major General | Robert Brieger | 06.12.2011 – 03.12.2012 |
| 8 | Austria |
Major General | Dieter Heidecker | 03.12.2012 - 17.12.2014 |
| 9 | Austria |
Major General | Johann Luif | 17.12.2014 - 24.03.2016 |
| 10 | Austria |
Major General | Friedrich Schrötter | 24.03.2016 - present |
See also
- Military of the European Union
- European Union rapid reaction mechanism
- Common Security and Defence Policy
References
- 1 2 "EU troops prepare for Bosnia swap". BBC. 23 October 2004.
- ↑ EUFOR Troop Strength (1 November 2007)
- ↑ http://www.afsouth.nato.int/NHQSA/index.htm
- ↑ Evans, Michael (29 November 2004). "EU force to take on pimps, drug barons and smugglers". The Times. Retrieved 13 January 2007.
- ↑ "EUFOR Fact Sheet - Countries of EUFOR". EUFOR. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ↑ EUFOR change of command ceremony
Further reading
- Le Monde (in French)
- EUFOR Althea: Appraisal and Future Perspectives of the EU’s Former Flagship Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, EU Diplomacy Paper 7/2011
- Dominik Tolksdorf The Difficulties of the European Union in Supporting the Europeanization of Bosnia and Herzegovina EU Frontier Policy Paper, Budapest: Center for EU Enlargement Studies – Central European University, 2011
External links
- Official EUFOR website
- The Council of the European Union's page on EUFOR-Althea
- The European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for Bosnia and Herzegovina
- the European Commission's Delegation to Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Swiss Military Department EUFOR page (in French)
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