Top brass from Germany and its neighbours France and Poland met in Warsaw on Wednesday to draw up plans for a joint battlegroup which is expected to be ready for action in crisis zones by 2013.
"The battalions are an important tool of crisis management for the European Union and demonstrate it is prepared to take responsibility in this important field," German Brigadier General Hans Weirmann told reporters.
Poland, a member of NATO since 1999 which also joined the EU five years ago, will act as the so-called "framework state" in the Weimar-EU Battlegroup, responsible for its infrastructure while Germany and France are to provide support, Polish Brigadier General Anatol Wojtan said.
EU battlegroups consisting of 1,500 to 2,000 troops from various states work on the basis of six-month rotations during which they are ready for deployment to crisis zones, often supporting UN conflict resolution and humanitarian aid missions.
In 2006, defence ministers from Poland, Germany and France agreed to create an EU Battlegroup known as the Weimar Triangle.
The Weimar Triangle itself is a group created after the 1989 collapse of communism in Poland to support its Western democratic orientation.
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