EU ministers agree on new Macedonia force

EU foreign Ministers today agreed on a German proposal for a new multi-national force to replace the current NATO mission in Macedonia when it ends later this month.

Some of the 15 Ministers, meeting in Brussels this weekend, are adamant the new force have a UN Security Council mandate.

Britain opposed the idea while others said there was not enough time to push such a mandate through the United Nations.

NATO meanwhile has said that Operation Essential Harvest will neither be extended nor replaced.

While it has been proposed by the French, it has been generally agreed that the new EU rapid-reaction force is not developed enough.

The German idea is for a smaller yet robust force of 4,500 troops whose mission must also be limited in time.

The successor force would be made up of NATO troops and be open to non-NATO members including the Scandinavian countries, Russia and the Ukraine.

All sides fear a security vacuum in the politically unsettled country after NATO troops end their mission this month.

They all agree an ethnic division in the country must be prevented and that a “silent coalition of extremists on both sides opposed to reconciliation” forms a major challenge to peace at present.