Who leads the EU's Defence (ESDP) missions?
(B2) The appointment of a head of mission (civilian) or of operation (military) is generally a clever balance between the personal skills of the candidates and the geopolitical context of the mission. Judge!
From September 15, there will officially be 14 EU missions:
• 3 are purely military
- Eufor Chad: General Pat Nash (Ireland) at OHQ (Paris) and General Jean-Philippe Ganascia (France) at FHQ (N'Djamena)
- Eufor Bosnia (Althea): Major General Ignacio Martin Villalain (Spain)
- Eu Navco (coordination against maritime piracy Somalia): Andres Claus Breijo (Spain)
and EU Navfor (fight against maritime piracy in Somalia): Rear Admiral Philip Jones (UK)
• 11 are "civilian" (or similar):
- Eulex Kosovo: (ex general) Yves De Kermabon (France), deputy Roy Reeve (United Kingdom)
- Eujust Lex Iraq: Stephen White (United Kingdom)
- Ssr Guinea-Bissau: General Juan Esteban Verastegui (Spain)
- Eupol RD Congo: Adilio Custodio (Portugal)
- Eusec RD Congo: Jean-Paul Michel (France)
- Eupol Afghanistan: Jürgen Scholz (Germany), replaced by Kai Vittrup (Denmark)
- Eupol/Eupm Bosnia: Brig. Gen. Vincenzo Coppola (Italy) replaced (on 1 Nov) by comm. Stefan Feller (Germany)
- Eupol Copps Palestine: Colin Smith (United Kingdom)
- Eubam Rafah (Palestine): Lt Gen. Pietro Pistolese (Italy),
- Eubam Moldova-Ukraine: Ferenc Banfi (Hungary)
- Eumm Georgia: Hansjörg Haber (Germany), Deputy General
January (France)
About the special representatives of the European Union - which can be compared to the "missi dominici" of Europe -, the choice is more Community-based, and the link between the territory concerned and the Member State of origin is less obvious. there are 12 and a 13th soon:
- Burma (special envoy): Piero Fassino (Italy)
- Afghanistan: Ettore Francesco Sequi (Italy)
- Middle East (peace process): Marc Otte (Belgium)
- African Union: Koen Vervaeke (Belgium)
- Great Lakes Africa: Roeland van de Geer (Netherlands)
- Sudan and Eufor Chad/CAR: Torben Brylle (Denmark)
- Kosovo: Pieter Feith (Netherlands)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Miroslav Lajcak (Slovakia)
- Fyrom (Macedonia): Erwan Fouere (Ireland)
- Moldova Ukraine: Kalman Mizsei (Hungary)
- Caucasus: Peter Semneby (Sweden)
- Central Asia : Pierre Morell (France)
- Georgia: Pierre Morell (France)
At the level of politico-military structures:
- the EU General Staff is headed by David Leakey (United Kingdom),
- the EU Military Committee (which brings together all the Chiefs of Staff) by General Bentegeat (France)
- the European Defense Agency through Alexander Weis (Germany).
These three institutions have their headquarters in Brussels.
(NGV)
(Updated October 30, 2008)
