. The attendees of the meeting agreed that the concept of the EU Battlegroups was facing a great pressure – the units that had been introduced 9 years ago had not been deployed even once ever since. Moreover, member states of the European Union were not always successful in generating two EU BGs for a simultaneous standby and sometimes made do with just one. According to the Lithuanian Director for Defence Policy, the situation had to be changed given the European Union was considering taking up a more responsibility in international security.
At the meeting the representatives of the EU member states proposed various ways of responding to the existing shortfalls. The Lithuanian MoD Political Director also pointed out that the deployment of the EU BGs had to be aligned tightly with other, financial and civilian, EU crisis response instruments. “Our BGs must be deployed, however, they are just one element of the vast spectrum of measures the European Union has in its disposition.” Dr. V.Urbelis also noticed that Lithuania and other partner countries had prepared seriously for the standby in the United Kingdom-led Battlegroup from July 1.
Lithuania and the United Kingdom are going to co-organise a high-level workshop in October which will continue the present discussion by focussing on the future of the EU BGs. The Defence Policy Directors’ meeting in Vilnius in July and the EU Defence Ministers’ meeting in September will also look into the EU BG issue from a similar perspective.
Approximately 120 servicemembers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces will be conducting standby in a UK-led EU BG along with military personnel from the United Kingdom, Latvia, the Netherland and Sweden in the second semester of 2013 starting from July 1 concurrently with Lithuania’s term of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. One of Lithuania priorities for the EU Presidency period is enhancing the Common Security and Defence Policy through the development of the EU’s multinational rapid crisis response capabilities – the EU BGs, as well as through supporting the EU’s involvement in multinational operations.
The Battlegroups are multinational rapid response units of the European Union capable of providing a speedy response to emerging crises. Following a similar pattern to NATO Response Force, the EU BGs are comprised of military units assigned by the member states for the half-year standbys on a rotational basis.
The EU BGs are formed on the basis of the principle of multinationality, maintain high readiness, and are capable of deploying rapidly into an operation theatre. One EU BG includes approximately 2 thousand members.
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