Finnish soldiers who have signed up for the crisis management forces of the European Union are not the only ones to be frustrated by idleness.
The governments of EU member states are also anxious to find missions for the costly forces, which have been operational for over a year. The even more expensive NATO Response Force is also still waiting for the call to manage a crisis somewhere.
During the weekend, EU ambassadors decided to postpone the deployment of EU forces in Chad, where there has been fighting in the capital N'Djamena.
The deployment in Chad is aimed at supporting crisis management operations in neighbouring Sudan.
Meanwhile, NATO is planning to reduce the size of its forces from what was originally planned. The changes are to be formalised at a meeting of NATO defence ministers later in the week.
The EU does not yet have plans to change the system, although idleness is actually a worse problem for it than for NATO, whose NRF forces train the crisis management forces of different countries, even when they are not deployed on a mission.
