Change of command at Eurocorps
(BRUSSELS2) German General Lothar Domröse took command of the Eurocorps on 25 September 2009. He takes over from Lieutenant General Pedro Pitarch, whose outspokenness has always been a pleasure for journalists.
Pitarch assumed command of the Eurocorps on September 21, 2007, after commanding the Spanish Land Forces.
Domröse was, in particular, Chief of Staff of the International Security Assistance Force known as "ISAF" in Kabul, Afghanistan, from January 2008 to January 2009. A very useful function because the Eurocorps should be redeployed in the region by 2012.
The General Staff is thus constituted :
- Belgian Major General Martin, as Deputy Commander-in-Chief
- the Spanish general Ramirez was appointed chief of staff (he was deputy "operations" to the chief of staff),
- the French brigadier general De la Maisonneuve takes the post of "deputy operations" to the chief of staff,
- the Polish brigadier general Buszka that of deputy support to the chief of staff
- and the German brigadier general Niemann takes the new post of deputy "training and resources" to the chief of staff.
A thousand people make up the General Staff.
L'Eurocorps is originally made up of five countries: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, to which Poland has been added. And will be added Italy. Romania and the United States are candidates. What poses a problem for the USA is the condition of belonging to the European Union to be part of the General Staff.
Le European Parliament twice proposed to place the Eurocorps permanently under the command of the European Union. But without success so far. And the French presidency of the EU (in the second half of 2), which also had this ambition, failed to convince the European partners. The Treaty of Strasbourg - signed on February 2008 this year - confers on the headquarters of the Eurocorps is already a first notable step. Because it recognizes the legal personality of Eurocorps. Which is still very far from the goal.
(photo credit: Eurocorps)