EUROPEAN DEFENCE
Which Legtimacy for the Eurocorps? Interview with Lieutenant General Pedro Pitarch, Commanding General of Eurocorps, Strasbourg The European – Security and Defence Union: General Pitarch, the Eurocorps celebrated 15 years of existence on 4th October 2008. Is there reason to celebrate? General Pitarch: Of course, there is reason to celebrate: Eurocorps is a success story, not only in terms of military capabilities, but also in terms of political-military relevance. More than ever, and may be due to the continuous development of ESDP, Eurocorps is considered one of the main military units in Europe. The European – Security and Defence Union: But has the pioneering spirit of the first years been kept up? After all, the name "Eurocorps" was deliberately chosen in order to overcome borders and harmonize national demands. General Pitarch: Since its foundation Eurocorps has never given up progressing and developing its capabilities. It has never been in a static configuration. If one compares Eurocorps then and now, the transformation is huge: at that time it was designed as a heavy army corps, for high intensity conflicts. Yet Eurocorps has permanently adapted its structure and equipment to become now a very versatile and agile headquarters, able to deploy anywhere, at any moment on order of our nations. Indeed Eurocorps has already been selected three times for missions in theatres of the most demanding type such as Afghanistan, and Eurocorps was the land headquarters that allowed the Alliance to pronounce the full operational capability of the NATO Response Force in 2006. The European – Security and Defence Union: The founder nations developed common regulations, procedures and methods designed to allow creating maximum interoperability and being open for new partners. In which form these new partners have indeed come into existence?. How does Eurocorps function after all? General Pitarch: Since the mid-90s, three other countries have joined Germany and France as Eurocorps core nations: Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg. These five countries form the Eurocorps Framework Nations, which means they are the ones that own this major unit. Moreover, I can read from time to time that Eurocorps includes some liaison officers. This definitely belongs to the past: Eurocorps is today reinforced by staff personnel from Austria, Greece, Turkey and Poland. The latter has recently even reinforced its contribution and has applied to become Eurocorps sixth Framework Nation. Regarding the reality of Eurocorps, I would say that I am pretty impressed. In
General Pedro Pitarch Commanding General of the Eurocorps, Strasbourg,France. Lieutenant General Pedro Pitarch gratuated from the Military Academy of Zaragoza as a first Lieutenant. From 1990 to 1994 advisor to the Prime Minister for international defence and security issues. In 1998 advisor to the PM for planning and implementation of the professionalisation of Spanish Forces. Brigadier General in 1999 resonsible in MOD Madrid for NATO, WEU, EU and OSCE . 2002 ACOS Logistics in Shape, Mons as a Major General before returning 2004 to Madrid as the Policy Director of MOD Madrid. He became head of the Spanish land forces in 2006 and was then nominated Commanding General of the Eurocorps on 21.September 2007.
fact, in contrast to most other headquarters of that level, no single nation can claim to run Eurocorps by itself. Everything is based on a common will, which consists in sharing the responsibilities while sharing the burdens as well. In concrete terms, Eurocorps headquarters comprises approximately 1000 persons and all the necessary assets to command and control a force of up to 65,000 soldiers. The European – Security and Defence Union: Thus, the core elements of the Eurocorps are your Staff, a Headquarters Support Battalion and the French-German Brigade in Müllheim on the other side of the river Rhine. But what structures does Eurocorps form part of? General Pitarch: In fact, Eurocorps does not have only the French-German Brigade under its operational command. Eurocorps commands a multinational command support brigade as well. This unit is one of our masterpieces as its mission is to get our command posts up and running. The great strength of Eurocorps is the fact that it is the shared property of five Framework Nations. Eurocorps can be put at the disposal of the EU, the NATO or the UN, whenever our nations decide to. In terms of military command and control, Eurocorps is under the command of the Chiefs of Defence of our Framework Nations, while simultaneously maintaining close links with the NATO command structure and the EU, too. The European – Security and Defence Union: Certainly, lacking military command and control structures of the European Union are one reason why there are only "light" links to the EU. And, of
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