Source: http://www.quarterly-review.org/?p=1198
“The organisation called the EUROGENDFOR, EGF, or more properly the European Gendarmerie Force, should be better known in Britain than it is, for its function is worrying and could affect this country in the future.
The Eurogendfor is a combined police and militia force currently formed from six EU member states, designed along the lines of the French Gendarmerie which was established a few years ago to deal rapidly with any perceived threat of increasing civil unrest and to strengthen the EU Common Security and Defence Policy. It was originally set up by the European Union in September 2004 at the suggestion of the then French defence minister, has headquarters in Vicenza north eastern Italy with a core of 800-900 members ready to deploy within 30 days, and an additional 2,300 reinforcements available on standby.
At present, membership of this Gendarmerie Force is only open to EU countries which have a police force with military status and therefore does not include the United Kingdom whose system of policing is by consent and quite different from that which operates on the Continent. Nor does Germany take part as their constitution does not permit the use of military forces for police services. To begin with, the Eurogendfor comprised forces from France, Portugal, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain but Poland and Lithuania became ‘partner countries’ in 2007 and 2009 respectively and Romania joined as a full member in 2008. In December 2011 Poland applied for full membership. At the moment, the only other EU country which has the relevant police/military ability to join the Eurogendfor is Bulgaria but as and when the EU expands, Serbia, Albania, Georgia,the Ukraine and possibly Turkey could also be accepted as full members. However, there has been a recent suggestion made by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael) that the rules for inclusion might be relaxed, in which case all EU member states, including the UK, might join and, in theory, operate throughout the European Union…”