EU makes military debut in still-simmering FYROM

‘Operation Concordia’ a prelude to much larger mission in Bosnia

Solana (r), FYROM President Boris Trajkovski (c) and Robertson celebrating the EU mission’s debut in Skopje yesterday.

By Misha Savic - The Associated Press

SKOPJE - The European Union took over peacekeeping in the still-tense Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) yesterday in the EU’s first military operation — a key test of Europe’s ability to operate in areas where the USA and NATO don’t want to get involved.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana oversaw the handover from NATO, which has deployed peacekeepers since disarming ethnic Albanian rebels in 2001, to the 320-strong European Union military force led by French Brig. Gen. Pierre Maral.

“As NATO hands over the mission to the European Union, a new chapter in European security has opened,” Lord Robertson said. “By taking on its first military mission, the EU is demonstrating that its project of a European security and defense policy has come of age.”

FYROM’s six-month ethnic war ended in 2001, and the EU’s historic debut — coming as it does in a post-conflict environment — was seen as a test of the 15-nation bloc to eventually build a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force able to deploy swiftly for humanitarian operations.

The commander of NATO’s 350 departing troops handed over the peacekeeping operation to Maral, who will head the EU mission of 320 soldiers and 80 civilians. Code-named Concordia, the mission is to last some six months with a budget of 6.2 billion euros ($6 billion).

If successful here, the EU will take over NATO’s peacekeeping operation in Bosnia next year, a much larger task currently involving some 13,000 troops.

Ethnic Albanian insurgents took up arms in February 2001, demanding broader rights for their large and restive ethnic Albanian minority, a third of FYROM’s 2 million people.

They agreed to disband following a Western-brokered peace deal. An uneasy truce has mostly held since August 2001.

Like their NATO predecessors, the EU troops will operate in small units spread out across the country, with 22 lightly armed and eight heavily armed teams patrolling in armored vehicles or helicopters.

Despite the handover, NATO has had a hand in the new mission: It was designed by experts at NATO’s European military headquarters in Belgium and its overall commander is German Adm. Rainer Feist, a deputy commander of NATO forces in Europe.

NATO reserves also will be on hand to protect and evacuate the lightly armed EU force if it runs into trouble.

“The EU will continue the job NATO started, and NATO will stay engaged in support of the EU-led force and as an adviser in security matters,” Robertson said yesterday.