Eurocorps

Eurocorps, located in the French city of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), is a multinational corps headquarters. Founded by France and Germany in 1992, it is today composed of personnel from six framework nations and five associated nations. The framework nations place the Eurocorps at the service of the European Union (EU) and NATO, which certified it in 2002 as one of its nine High Readiness Land Headquarters (HRF (L) HQ).^[1]

The precedents of the Eurocorps date back to 1989, when German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the President of the French Republic, François Mitterrand, initiated military cooperation by establishing the Franco-German Defense and Security Council and creating a joint brigade, which became operational in 1991.

Subsequently, in 1992, at the La Rochelle summit, both countries signed the report that led to the creation of Eurocorps. That same year, the first German and French officers joined the unit. In 1993 Belgium joined the unit, followed by Spain a year later. In 1995 it was officially declared operational, and the following year Luxembourg joined. In 2022 Poland became the sixth framework nation.^[2] Currently there are five associated countries: Greece, Turkey, Italy, Austria and Romania.^[3] There have also been, during different periods, military personnel from Canada (2003–2007), the United Kingdom (1999–2002), the Netherlands (1999–2002) and Finland (2002–2005).

The Eurocorps was formally established on a legal basis by the Treaty concerning the Eurocorps and the status of its headquarters, also known as "Treaty of Strasbourg", an agreement signed in Brussels on 22 November 2004 by the defense ministers of the five member countries at that time (Germany, France, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg) and ratified by their respective national parliaments. It became effective on 26 February 2009.^[4]

The purpose of the treaty, as stated in article 1, is to "define the fundamental principles relating to the missions, organization and functioning of the Eurocorps".^[5]

Article 2 defines the European military group as "the multinational army corps consisting of the Headquarters and the units in respect of which the Contracting Parties have effected the transfer of command to the Commanding General of the Eurocorps".^[5]

As for Eurocorps missions, article 3 states that they may be entrusted to it in the context of the United Nations, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) evacuation missions, humanitarian missions, peacekeeping or crisis management.