The military aspect of the EU’s common defence and security policy is beginning to take shape. The Council of Foreign and Defence Ministers announced the establishment by 2007 of at least 13 European “battle groups”, so-called multinational interforce groups of tactical type each composed of 1500 soldiers able to mobilise in the space of a few days and deploy over a range of several thousand kilometres, also outside EU frontiers (for example, in missions in support of UN peacekeeping forces during international crises). The first group, composed of amphibian forces of the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek armies, will be operational by 2005. Another four groups will have a mainly national character (75% composed of units from the country itself), and will be respectively under the command of Italy, the UK, Spain and France.
