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And the new EU Chief of Staff will be…?

(B2) EU Chiefs of Staff (CHOD) meet on 5 May to decide on the name of the new EU Chief of Staff. This is to replace the British General Leakey who is in command until February 2010.

Three candidates are in the running : a Greek, Italian, a Dutchman. And, of course, nothing can be revealed before the outcome of the vote (*)... So suspense! But some indications suggest that it could be the Greek candidate Gogouvitis who would be nominated. A choice that would be all in all logical since it was one of those that was at the beginning of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). Together with the future chairman of the EU Military Committee, a Swede, who is due to take office at the end of 2008, he will then form the new "leading couple" of the EU's military approach.

GreekVassilios Gogouvitis (ltt general). Born in Lamia in 1951, he is currently retired from an active career, after having been Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. He is an artilleryman who began his career as a second lieutenant before commanding an artillery battalion, then the 80th National Guard Brigade, and finally the 4th Infantry Division. He has held several international positions. In particular at NATO, first as head of the office of directors of the NHPLO (the logistics and production organization of the HAWK) then as the planning staff of the ACE Reaction Forces, at Shape (1993 ). This is the time when operations in the former Yugoslavia are planned. Chairman of the WEU committee which considers the future of European land forces (Eurolongterm - Land), he was then Chief of the WEU Support Staff (from 1998 to 2001), and led the work of the group Military Delegates Working Group (MDWG). At the same time, he became (from 2000 to 2001) head of the European Union's interim military headquarters, ancestor of the EU headquarters, which laid down the foundations of the military policy of the ESDP. He was also the deputy military representative during the Greek presidency of the EU - which is extended for 12 months, at least for the military ESDP part, due to the Danish opt out.

Italian From Vincenti, founded the Italian Operations Center for Joint Operations (Combined Operations Center) created in 1997 in Rome, where he headed the force planning division for 4 years. During this period, the operation in Kosovo took place. He was also military attaché in Berlin (2001-2004) and then returned to Italy. He is currently Deputy Chief of Operations at the Air Force (in Ferrara).

Dutch Your Van Osch (ltt general). Born in 1955, he is the current military representative in Brussels to the EU and NATO (since 2007). Trained at the Royal Military Academy of the Netherlands from 1974, he is also an artilleryman. He commanded the 41st Land Artillery Battalion deployed in Germany. He took courses in the United States from the US Army Command and General Staff College. In 1999 he was chief OPs (land) at SFOR headquarters. Directly after 11/2002, he moved to Tampa as the operational planner of the Coalition Coordination Center at US Central Command. Promoted to brigadier-general in 2004, he became deputy chief of operations at the General Staff then deputy chief for cooperation and international planning. In December XNUMX, he took over as head of the Royal Military Academy of the Netherlands, then the new Higher Defense College of the Netherlands (which merged the various Dutch military colleges).

(*) This vote takes place in several sequences: a first vote makes it possible to retain two candidates, a second vote makes it possible to retain the final candidate.

(NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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