Common Effort 08: Distinguished Visitors Day

Mourmelon (France), 25 November 2008.

The visitor’s day, organized by HQ Eurocorps brought more than 100 guests together – civilian authorities as well as military commanders from both sides of the Atlantic. More than forty generals, including 10 Lieutenant Generals from the Land, Air and Sea forces, parliamentarians, diplomats and European politicians visited. General Jean-Louis Georgelin, French Chief of Defence, has been one of the most outstanding attendants.

This year’s big Eurocorps exercise has a special importance as it demonstrates operations under the European Union control. Only a few months after the European Parliament on June 5th 2008 proposed with a large majority “to place Eurocorps as a standing force under EU command”. This is a unique and unprecedented act in the history of the Common Defence and Security Policy.

The exercise is the culmination of Eurocorps’ long preparation process. This year the HQ was involved with two other exercises and an air deployment of the Fact Finding Team. This impressive series of exercises simultaneously became a test case for the new Communication and Information System (CIS) of the French armed forces (incorporating the initial interoperability between the French and German systems used by the French-German Brigade) and served as an efficiency test for the use of national and allied CIS and telecommunications.

 

Fotos: OR6 PATRY - OR3 FERNANDEZ

 

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