You are here
Home > Politics > Poland to reduce involvement in Eurocorps

Poland to reduce involvement in Eurocorps

Poland army

Poland no longer wants to be a “framework” nation in the Eurocorps force and will gradually reduce its involvement in the Strasbourg-based intergovernmental military body, the Polish defence ministry has said.

But Poland is not pulling out of the Eurocorps, the ministry said, denying media reports that Warsaw planned such a move.

Deputy Defence Ministry Bartosz Kownacki said on Wednesday: “We think the eastern flank and the presence of our soldiers and coalition troops on the eastern flank is more important.”

He added: “We need to rationally manage our forces.”

The defence ministry said in a statement: “It is not true that Poland is withdrawing from the Eurocorps.”

“After a decision of the Minister of Defence, Poland has only decided not to apply for the status of a framework state in the Eurocorps command and will gradually reduce its contribution in the next 3-4 years,” the statement added.

Eurocorps is an intergovernmental military corps based in Strasbourg, France.

The defence ministry in Warsaw said Poland would retain its status as an associate state.

It added that the decision was taken “in connection with the increased burden on the armed forces resulting from the implementation of the decisions of the NATO summits in Newport and Warsaw, including the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank in the context of collective defence.”

NATO leaders decided a 2016 summit in Warsaw to bolster the military alliance’s eastern flank amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Top