On Wednesday 19th December, Brigadier General Milan Zurman, Chief of Staff Forces Command for the Slovenian Army, visited COMEUFOR, Major General Martin Dorfer, at Camp Butmir.
During the office call, Brigadier General Zurman and COMEUFOR discussed the importance of the Slovenian Army’s contribution to EUFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Slovenian Army provides personnel for 3 of EUFOR’s 17 LOT houses, and is 1 of 19 troop-contributing nations.
The mandate for EUFOR’s Operation Althea is in two parts, Executive and Non-Executive. The Executive mandate is given by the UN Security Council, and the EUFOR mission is then based on the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) Joint Action which includes an Executive part derived from the UN Security Council (Supporting the BiH authorities maintain a safe and secure environment). It also includes and a Non-Executive part (Supporting AFBiH collective and combined training). This supports BiH in its progress to being a ‘security provider’ rather than a ‘security consumer’.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1575, adopted unanimously on 22 November 2004, welcomed the EU’s intention to launch an EU military operation in BiH. It authorized the Member States acting through or in cooperation with the EU to establish a multinational stabilization force (EUFOR) as a legal successor to SFOR under unified command and control, which will fulfill its missions in relation to the implementation of Annex 1-A and Annex 2 of the Dayton/Paris Agreement. EUFOR has the main peace stabilization role under the military aspects of the Peace Agreement.