Paris seeking EU ‘gendarmes’ for peace missions

Report of a European Union Informal Ministerial Meeting on Defence, Rome, 3-4 October 2003. At the meeting, the French Defence Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, proposed the EU create its own paramilitary 'gendarme' force to help create stability after military peacekeeping missions. Ministers also agreed to establish a European Defence Agency in 2003.