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EGF OPENING CEREMONY HELD ON 23rd JANUARY 2006
Almost one year after the setting up of the Headquarters, the European Gendarmerie
Force was officially inaugurated on Monday 23rd January 2006, during a military
ceremony in the Gen. CHINOTTO barracks in Vicenza (Italy).
The five Ministers of Defense and/or Interior from the five EGF participating Countries
(France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) participated in the inauguration,
accompanied by the General Directors or Commanders of the five "Gendarmerie type"
(1) forces. The ceremony was honored by the presence of several dignitaries from
different European Countries, among which the President of the European Union Military
Committee, on behalf of the EU General Secretariat, as well as the Austrian Minister
of Defense, invited as the Representative of the EU Presidency, and the Belgian
Minister of Defense.
The Ministers welcomed the significant progress made, yet in less than one year,
towards the attainment of the EGF full operational capability, thank to the constant
and coordinated efforts of the HQ. It was underlined, both from the EGF Participating
Countries and from the European Union Representatives, the strong political willingness
to take advantage of EGF, once become fully operational, as a new valid and effective
tool to reinforce the existing capabilities in the international crisis management.
To this aim the EUROGENDFOR Commander, Brigadier General Gérard Deanaz, stressed
in his speech the added value of EGF, lying either in its dual nature, of police
force with military status able to carry out all police tasks, including in non
benign environment, both under a civilian and a military chain of command, or its
rapid deployment capability, consisting in the possibility to intervene in crisis
management operations within a timeframe of 30 days. Furthermore, he reaffirmed
the necessity for the HQ to focus the activities on the improvement of its capabilities,
in a view of the next exercise EGEX 06, during which the procedures in planning
and conducting a mission will be tested.
The opening ceremony of the HQ marked the conclusion of the yearly CIMIN Presidency
that was handed over by Italy to Spain for the year 2006.
(1) : Gendarmerie Nationale française, Italian Carabinieri, Dutch
Royal Marechaussee, Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana, Spanish Guardia Civil.
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