On the one hand, contrarily to what might have been expected, the European military force will be “skimpy” in terms of numbers. In fact, the EU is far from deploying almost 4000 soldiers as they did in the former EU military mission EUFOR Tchad/RCA (2008-2009): the EUFOR RCA Bangui mission will rely on approximately 600 units[1].

On the other and, the mission mandate largely matches with the general expectations. The mission is likely to start by the end of February, it should last up to 6 month and its mandate will consist in securing the Capital city, Bangui, (and its airport) and in supporting humanitarian aid delivery.

Interesting scenario in terms of participation. Although there is no certainty yet, as previously predicted, the EU members which are most likely to contribute troops to the mission are France and Estonia: Paris will surely provide the bulk of the force and Tallinn has already confirmed Estonian participation (55 units for a four-month period[2]). Given their latest efforts in the development of a common European military tool, Finland and Sweden are currently thinking about sending their troops, as well as Belgium, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. The Greek contribution will consist in making available one of their national HQs[3]. Germany is unlikely to send any troops but could provide general support to the military operations. The other "big" countries, namely Italy, Spain and United Kingdom have displayed their political blessing but, so far, there are no indications of a potential operational involvement: Spain and Italy are more concerned with their own political and economic problems whereas London has no particular interest in favouring French foreign policy in Africa more that what is actually necessary.

It can be argued that a mission such the one at issue is not a "big thing", and it is actually difficult to think otherwise. Moreover, why didn't the European Union decide to use the Battlegroups tool? It was created in order to enable the EU to deal with humanitarian crisis but it has never been used and UK opposition turned down every chance of its deployment in EUFOR RCA Bangui mission[4]. At times, “something” could really be “better than nothing”but the odds seem to to be not very favourable.