The enchanting venue of Caserma Chinotto in Vicenza, home of the EUROGENDFOR Permanent Headquarters, hosted the celebration of the ceremony whereby Spanish Guardia Civil Colonel Francisco ESTEBAN PÉREZ handed over the EGF command to the French Gendarmerie Nationale Colonel Philippe RIO.
EUROGENDFOR, i.e. the European Gendarmerie Force is a multinational police structure founded in 2004, and endorsed by a constitutional Treaty signed in 2007 in Velsen, The Netherlands.
The Force is made up by six European countries – Italy, France, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain, being Poland in the process of becoming a full member, and Turkey an Observer – although it is open to the participation of police forces from extra-European countries.
EUROGENDFOR can be put at the disposal of the European Union, NATO, UN, OSCE and other international organizations, for their use in peacekeeping operations and international crisis management. It performs police duties wherever the local security structures are ineffective or non-existent, and supports both local police training and local security sector reform or rebuilding.
Colonel Francisco ESTEBAN PEREZ, who relinquished the EGF command to his French colleague Philippe RIO, has been the fifth EUROGENDFOR Commander.
The military ceremony was attended by the Presidency of the CIMIN (High Level Interdepartmental Committee), which exerts EUROGENDFOR strategic management, as well as by the Commanders and General Directors of EUROGENDFOR Member States.
Special emphasis was placed on the presence of the General Commander of the Arma di Carabinieri Tullio Del Sette, which conferred eminence to the event.
Moreover, the EUROGENDFOR Gold Medals were awarded for the first time, to the three fallen EGF members in Afghanistan. They were delivered by Romanian Gendarmerie General Mircea OLARU, President of the CIMIN, to the Deputy Director of the Spanish Guardia Civil, and to the Commander of the XIII Reggimento Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Carabinieri.
Our special thanks to Colonel Esteban PEREZ for the excellence of the work rendered, achieving outstanding goals like EGF participation in EUFOR RCA (Central African Republic), EUCAP MALI, and Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
Our best wishes of success to Commander Philippe RIO.