British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon recently invited Norway to join the common EU battle group to be formed by Finland and Sweden. However, Finnish government sources say that this does not mean that the UK itself would be joining the Nordic rapid deployment force .
The call by Hoon for Norway to join the force was seen in Finland as an expression of support for the idea that countries like Norway that are in NATO and outside the EU would be acceptable in the EU military units.
The EU itself has not decided if it should accept non-members into the forces. Sweden and Finland would like to see Norway join, but the issue has caused political divisions in Norway.
The EU has scheduled a meeting for November 22nd at which member states are expected to report on the planned composition of the forces.
By then it should be clear if Norway will be the third partner in the battle group being set up by Finland and Sweden, and what kinds of troops each country will contribute. The Finnish government is to decide on the size and character of the Finnish group sometime in November.
The EU does not have any staff headquarters for its crisis management operations, and the Finnish and Swedish rapid deployment forces would also not have a separate headquarters. The idea is that either NATO headquarters or the staff HQ of the defence forces of some EU country would serve as such.
Geoff Hoon’s invitation was seen in some quarters as in indication that the UK was offering its own staff HQ for the use of the Nordic EU forces.
France, Germany, Italy, and Greece have also indicated willingness to place their national headquarters at the disposal of the EU forces.
