The conclusions of European Council meeting that took place in NICE in a period of 7-9 December 2000 was that the European Union should quickly be made operational in the area of SECURITY AND DEFENCE.
As a follow up 5 EU Member States: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain proposed:
- to provide Europe with a full capability in order to conduct all police missions in crisis management operations within the framework of the Petersberg Declaration, with particular regard to substitution missions;
- to offer a multinational operational structure to those States which intend to join EU operations;
- to participate in initiatives of international organisations in the area of crisis management.
To fulfil this proposal the countries decided to create a gendarmerie force, called EUROGENDFOR (EGF) which will be operational, pre-organised, robust and rapidly deployable, in order to perform all police tasks.