Helsinki Headline Goal
Military capability target for 2003 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Helsinki Headline Goal was a military capability target set for 2003 during the December 1999 Helsinki European Council meeting with the aim of developing a future European Rapid Reaction Force.[1][2] There was much interest in the idea of a single EU military force, and inexact characterisations of the initiative (which was not much more than some headquarters arrangements and a list of theoretically available national forces) led to imprecise journalistic depictions about a unified European army.[3]
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The Headline Goal was built upon an earlier bilateral Franco-British Joint Declaration adopted at St. Malo in December 1998.[4] The St. Malo Declaration said that the European Union ought to have the capability for “autonomous action backed up by credible military forces” as part of a common defence policy. The St. Malo Declaration laid the political foundation between France and the United Kingdom, which in turn facilitated the launch of the European Security and Defence Policy and the formulation of the Headline Goal.
In 2004, a new target was set: the Headline Goal 2010. To update the initial declaration in December 1999, the formal agreement on the Headline Goal was reached on 22 November 2004 and according to statements made by EU officials the first units will be deployable in 2007. Since 1 January 2007, 60,000 soldiers have been available for a possible European Rapid Reaction Force who are potentially able to be deployed for at least a year.