EU consider setting up paramilitary police force

Plans to set up a European paramilitary police force based on the French gendarmes or Italy’s Carabinieri to support international peacekeeping missions top the agenda at a meeting for EU defence ministers opening today.

Ministers from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands are set to sign an agreement tomorrow to put in motion plans to create the 3,000-strong force, which supporters say will fill a dangerous gap in Europe’s peacekeeping capabilities.