Poland to play a smaller role in Eurocorps forces

Poland will not leave the pan-European military body Eurocorps, but will not seek the full membership, which it previously planned to become this year. Instead, Warsaw will remain an “associate-nation” and will limit the number of its soldiers in the force from the current 120. “We've decided to limit our presence in the Eurocorps forces after decision was made to change its scope of activity from a collective defense unit to a training and peacekeeping one,” said deputy defense minister Tomasz Szatkowski, who added that Poland wants to focus our efforts on military defense. Eurocorps has some 6,000 troops that can be put at the disposal of NATO, UN or the EU, around 1,000 are based in Strasbourg, with the other 5,000 in the Franco-German Brigade, stationed in Germany. The force, which also has contingents from Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg, can raise more than 60,000 soldiers, who normally remain based in their respective countries.