Monday 31 March 2003 EU's first military mission to Macedonia  | The European Union is launching its first military mission. It is taking over from NATO to run a peace-keeping operation in Macedonia with a force of three hundred soldiers. The mission has been called “Operation Concordia” but it is starting at a time when the EU is still suffering from damaging disputes about Iraq. This report from Chris Morris.
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 Listen to the story It may be scarcely noticed amidst the flurry of war in Iraq, but this is something of a turning point for European defence. For the first time, the EU, that most political of organisations, will run a military mission. It's putting flesh on the bones of its ambitions to create a viable European defence identity. It's neither the biggest, nor the most ambitious of missions – just three hundred troops in Macedonia to begin with, for just six months – but it is a start and it has great symbolic importance.
If all goes well, and as the EU is taking over from a successful NATO mission there's no reason why it shouldn't, then there will be more to come. The EU already has its eye on the much larger peace-keeping operation in Bosnia, where twelve thousand troops are currently under NATO command.
Officials say future missions could take them to Africa or the Caucasus, once the EU's new rapid reaction force is up and running. Europe has been split asunder by bitter disagreements about Iraq, exposing the fatal weakness of plans to create a common foreign policy. But the Balkans is one place where the EU is making progress.
Chris Morris, BBC, Brussels.
Listen to the words flurry sudden activity a turning point a time at which a very important event or change occurs putting flesh on the bones in this context – putting its ideas into practice by forming a small army viable capable of doing what it is intended to do just six months only six months symbolic importance important because of what it represents has its eye on is watching carefully to see how the situation develops split asunder broken into pieces fatal weakness a lack of strength which results in failure common able to be accepted and used by everyone  Read more about this story | |  | | | SEARCH IN LEARNING ENGLISH | | | |
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