A Spanish general will lead the Eurocuerpo in full debate on the military mission in Ukraine | Spain

Spain is already preparing to lead the Eurocuerpothe Headquarters of the Military Unit that goes through being the embryo of the future European Army. A Spanish general general of the Army of Earth will take command for two years of the Tactical Operations Headquarters located in Strasbourg (France), in the heart of the European Union; where the Rin River, which separated two antagonistic enemies in the first half of the twentieth century – francia and Germany – represents from the end of World War II the union of the old continent.

In September, a Spanish military will take over from the Polish Piotr Blazeusz. Although a definitive decision has not yet been made, the best candidate to occupy the position is the Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro, who plans to leave in June the command of the United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon (Finul). Since February 2022, General Lázaro has been the commander in chief of the 10,000 blue helmets (among them, some 650 Spaniards) deployed north of the blue line that makes border between Lebanon and Israel to monitor the high fire between the Shiite guerrillas Hezbollah and the Hebrew army. His mandate has been one of the most complicated of the UN mission, since he has had to face the exchange of fire between the two contestants already The nth invasion by Israelwhich still maintains five occupied positions in the neighboring country, and has had to dedicate the bulk of its efforts to a job of good trades to prevent climbing even greater.

Under the command of a Spanish general, the European Army Corps could also be used in the coming months to direct the deployment of a peace mission in Ukraine with the aim of monitoring an eventual high -fire agreement between Moscow and kyiv, although military sources point out that the most likely of the General Staff of that hypothetical European operation is directed by French and British military Now in promoting its implementation. The Eurocuerpo has experience in this type of tasks, then, under the NATO or EU flag, has already participated in Misiones in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Mali or the Central African Republic (RCA).

Born from the Rochelle (France) summit in 1992, between the Frenchman François Mitterrand and the German Helmut Kohl, the Eurocuerpo currently has six member countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg and Poland) and five other associates (Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey and Austria). This will be the fourth time that a general took command of the Strasbourg base, to which Spain contributes 21% of both the budget (13 million euros) and the military (almost 1,000 in total). Its deployable headquarters has the capacity to direct an army body composed of 65,000 troops.

In the coming months it must be decided if the EU combat groups are placed under their command Battle Groups—, the minimum terrestrial unit that Brussels considers necessary to intervene in a quick and surgical way; and that have never been used since its creation in 2008. Until now it was the countries themselves, who, individually and independently, managed these combat groups, which translated into certain dysfunctions depending on the budgets and internal drives of each country. « With this decision, the Eurocuerpo is more strength, » acknowledges an Army Colonel. Its eventual use must be authorized in each case by member countries.

The gestures of the Spanish government towards the Eurocuerpo, a barracks conceived to guarantee the safety and stability in Europe, have been continuous in recent weeks. The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, visited this multinational headquarters on March 15, becoming the first Spanish head of defense to do so in the history of the Eurocor, while the rest of the counterparts maintained a summit to talk about a possible mission in Ukraine, as long They establish guarantees to European countriesincluding Spain. Shortly after, on March 19, the Polish commander who still leads him, Piotr Blazeusz, traveled to Madrid and met with the highest Spanish military authorities.