THE OFFICER LEADING Ireland’s detachment of troops to the EU Battlegroup said that the initiative is designed to allow the European Union to act “decisively” in a crisis.
Lieutenant Colonel Donal Burke was speaking to reporters this morning at an event in Gormanstown Army Camp where the Defence Forces personnel came together for an exercise ahead of their deployment at the end of the year.
“World events even prior to 2022 highlighted the fact that the European Union has to be able to act. We have to be able to act in a timely and a decisive manner. So the operation of European foreign policy is the Battlegroup,” Burke said.
The Government approved the participation of the Irish Defence Forces in the German-led EU Battlegroup in January 2023. It will see Irish troops, joining the military operation in 2024 and 2025.
This will be the eighth occasion on which the Defence Forces have been part of the initiative and the first since 2020.
The military initiative will be on standby for the entirety of 2025 and respond on a European basis to UN mandated interventions.
The EU have said they can also respond to humanitarian crises and act as a Quick Reaction Force to deploy to a hotspot before the arrival of a permanently positioned military unit.
Germany will lead the group while other participating members will include Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Ireland has previously participated in the Nordic Battlegroups in 2008, 2011 and 2015, the UK-led EU Battlegroup in 2016 and the German-led Battlegroups in 2012, 2016 and in 2020.
Burke said that the initiative is a key component of the European Strategic Compass which is a document focusing on strengthening the EU’s defence and security policy.
He said the concept is best suited to incidents such as the evacuation of EU civilians from Afghanistan or last year’s crisis in Sudan when countries acted individually to launch an emergency rescue operation of stranded citizens.
Ireland sent a group from the Army Ranger Wing to backup a diplomatic team during both those crises.
Burke said that they don’t know where the group will ultimately be deployed to but said that “we’re preparing and training for the unknown, but we do know the left and right parameters”.
While deployments have been few in previous iterations Burke believes that there is a high chance in this current Battlegroup that Irish troops will be deployed.
“I have to believe that we’re going to deploy from the first just in the approach to mentality, and I’ve set a very high bar for our guys, and we’re really working hard to prepare ourselves to be ready to deploy, because I do believe that more than any previous Battle Group, there’s a higher likelihood that we will deploy. That’s not saying that it’s probable it’s just a higher likelihood due to the security situation globally,” he added.
The concept, Burke explained, is that the Battlegroup can deploy up to 6,000 kilometres from Brussels – which would put them into the Balkans region, the Sahel region in Africa.
The focus of the operations, given Ireland’s successful background in peacekeeping, that the missions are likely to be humanitarian and peace enforcement missions.
Burke has 172 troops at his disposal – that is made up of 139 in a mechanised infantry company, which means that they are foot soldiers working in armoured personnel carriers.
There are also 29 person support element which handles logistics, logistics and communications.
On 22 November the soldiers will deploy to Germany on board two heavy lift military aircraft provided by European member states. On that trip they will go to a training exercise and co-operate with other units who they will work with on future missions.
Following that the EU Battlegroup 2025, with a strength of 2,000 personnel, will commence for a full year of standby duty to deploy rapidlyfor the entirety of 2025.
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