EUROGENDFOR: The Origins

EUROPEAN GENDARMERIES, FROM THEIR ORIGINS TO THE EUROPEAN GENDARMERIE FORCE

Abstract

The present article aims at providing a contribution in understanding the origins and role of gendarmeries (with a focus on the European ones), as well as the European Gendarmerie Force’s mission and potential.

The opportunity for such an article stemmed from the lack of proper knowledge about gendarmerie forces as raised by some scholarly essays, especially in the field of Stability Policing[1][2][3], mainly in countries without a gendarmerie tradition. A following article will further develop this area of knowledge into the analysis of the added value of these forces for capacity building engagements.

Gendarmeries were – unequivocally – established as police forces called to provide robust, professional solutions to increased requests for public security. Their personnel were mainly taken from the best elements of the armed forces, therefore offering discipline, professionalism and dedication. Since their establishment, gendarmeries continue to operate for and within the populace, offering an all-encompassing set of capacities, rooted in their military background. Such an approach proved to be easily applicable to deployments abroad, where populations are threatened before, during and after conflicts or crises.

The common grounds, traditions and experiences of European gendarmeries were then gathered together with the establishment of the European Gendarmerie Force (EUROGENDFOR). This initiative offers a police force with military status capable of performing all police (policing) tasks in conflict prevention, peace and humanitarian missions and in crisis management operations outside of the borders of the European Union, under any chain of command (either military or civilian).

EUROGENDFOR has two main functions: temporary substitution of the local police, when this is no longer existing or critically ineffective, and strengthening and restoration of law enforcement bodies, with monitoring, tutoring, training, advising and mentoring functions. In this second function, it places itself as a relevant actor in capacity building engagements.

 

1. Origins of European Gendarmeries
    

Gendarmeries are police forces with a “military status”, mostly the ones following the model of the French Gendarmerie.

The French Gendarmerie Nationale, the first gendarmerie force, was set up in 1791, so two years after the French Revolution of 1789, even though its roots can be traced back to the XIII Century. At that time, the Maréchaussée de France was tasked with what today would be called “military police” duties, namely policing of the mobilized armies in times of war. The French National Gendarmerie stemmed from the reorganization of previously existing units, some of which were municipal guards in local communities, while others were tasked with specialized duties, like escorting the king on the battlefield as mounted units.

 

 

Through the centuries this model evolved into the “Police of the King”, whose personnel usually served in places and towns different from the ones they came from, responding for their duties to a hierarchy going up to the King himself. The founding of such a force was part of a much wider process of centralization and extension of state’s powers, progressively eroding the influence and authority from local nobles. It’s worth mentioning how one of the most important consequences of this process was the development of the principle of the monopoly of the use of force by the state[4], which nowadays is taken for granted, but before the dawning of the industrialization period, it was not[5].

A different police model was the “Police of the Community”, whose members were drawn from the same communities they were meant to serve. This second model served as a basis for locally-organized Anglo-Saxon or Nordic police forces of nowadays.

The French Revolution, with the centralization of powers into the National Assembly (hence, the Parliament, in place of the King) paved the way for an institution better suited to enforce laws all over the country, including to the far peripheries or most isolated areas. One of the most important features of this force, which had a military status, was its nation-wide structure, going up to a single, centralized command.

In 1814 the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee was founded as part of the army and tasked with maintaining public order, law enforcement and safeguarding the main roads.

 

 

 

In the same year, the Carabinieri Corps was established in the Kingdom of “Piemonte and Sardegna” (Italy). The performance and efficiency of previous local municipal guards was considered as insufficient, so that this new police corps was manned by members with a military background, who had to distinguish among peers for “good conduct and wisdom”. Moreover, literacy skill were also required, thus enabling the same personnel to write reports. This may be seen as a basic requirement for a police force, but was a quite uncommon ability at the beginning of the XIX century.

 

Due to the perceived need of extending the state’s authority and enforcing national laws all over the country, an important feature of gendarmeries, as police with military status, was their ability to operate in rural and austere environments, far from bases in urban areas.

This was one of the reasons for establishing the Spanish Guardia Civil in 1844, to contrast the bandoleros, road brigands acting far from towns. Rural organized banditry was common also to other European countries at that time, including Italy, mainly in the south with the name of “brigantaggio”.

The southern Italian situation was, using contemporary terms, mixed of both organized crime and insurgency[6], as it occurred after the political unification of the Italian peninsula and, therefore, the annexation of the southern “Kingdom of two Sicilies”. This entailed, among other issues, the enforcement of unpopular laws (like the imposition of the conscription) and the dissolution of the southern Kingdom’s army (in contemporary terms, wrong evaluations about the “Demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration” process) [7].

 

 

 

 

The Romanian Gendarmerie was founded in 1850, with a decision of the People’s Assembly and was approved and “the Rule for Reform of the Servants in Gendarmes” promulgated. This conferred the Gendarmerie its legal status, establishing the principles of its organization and functioning as well as its assigned missions: guaranteeing public safety, maintaining good order and enforcing the laws.

 

 

The Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana was founded in 1911, as the successor of the Royal Police Guard, whose foundation year dates back to 1801.

 

 

 

The Polish Military Gendarmerie, founded in 1812 within the Polish Army in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw by a Napoleon’s order[8], was, after some historical occurrences, re-formed as an independent part of the Polish Armed Forces in 1990.

 

 

 

Contrary to what is a widespread but erroneous perception, especially in countries not having a gendarmerie tradition, the fact of being military forces was always coupled with an ethic of service to the civilian population. For instance, “Since the establishment of the Corps, on July 13th 1814, specific behavioural norms were set up for the Carabinieri who were called upon to perform the dual function of military and police operators and to work beside the population even in the smaller centres, in which they represent the symbol of the State”[9].

 

Nowadays gendarmeries, operating in more than fifty countries around the world (including, so, many non-European ones), normally perform the full spectrum of police functions. Preventative tasks, community policing and judicial police, including the capability to handle investigations and fight against organized crime, are among them. Moreover, gendarmeries developed a wide range of specialized policing expertise such as traffic police, environmental protection, combating terrorism, scientific investigations, public order management, intelligence, maritime service, borders, customs, and others. All these police functions are meant to provide law enforcement services to the population.

The “military status” grants gendarmerie forces the affiliation to both the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior. Some of the EUROGENDFOR gendarmerie forces are a standalone armed force, like the traditional ones, under the Ministry of Defence and the Defence General Staff, while others only respond to the Ministry of Interior. Whatever their hierarchical affiliation, when exerting civilian police duties, all of them fall under the functional authority of the Ministry of Interior.

As a matter of fact, all the countries with a gendarmerie also have civilian police forces, being them national, local, or both. Nation-wide civilian police forces are, in the large majority of cases, in charge of policing only in urban areas, while gendarmeries mainly operate in rural areas or in both rural areas and cities[10]. Many gendarmeries also express border control functions.

The criteria for establishing the territorial partition between civilian state police and gendarmerie vary among states, and are functional to the tailoring of a force structure being more responsive to the security needs of the populations. Policing of rural areas entail responsibility on extended areas, which demand for a rationalization of the means at disposal on diverse territories and is led by the need of mobility, so as to be able to be where the citizen needs, with the adequate capacity, and at the right time[11].

It’s worth recalling how the gendarmeries’ ethical background remains, after two centuries or more, to “Serve and protect: this is the common way for every police force and in any nation, this is what our countries expect from us”[12].

 

1. Establishment of the European Gendarmerie Force (EUROGENDFOR)
    
   During the peace-keeping missions in the 1990s, mainly in the Balkans, the concept of “security gap”[13] emerged. This is a situation where the local police forces are unable or unwilling to provide security to the population, or even are inexistent. In the same time, military forces are ill-equipped and trained to perform this job, as their main focus are combat operations[14]. In these circumstances the need for a deployable police force, able to provide policing to the local population (“substitution” mission), and/or reinforce the local police (“strengthening” mission) became clear.
   The first unit aimed at bridging this gap was the NATO Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU) deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1998.
   The forces participating in the MSU were, mainly, gendarmeries, both in Bosnia and in Kosovo (as well as, later on, in Iraq). Due to common ethos, organization and institutional culture of European gendarmeries, the potential of working together in peacekeeping and crisis management operations in a more stable, permanent and structured way emerged.
   The ethics of police forces with military status in the home countries proved to be effective in peacekeeping endeavours where, differently from “traditional conflicts”, the relationship with the local population is of paramount importance for the success of the mission[15].
    
   In September 2003, the French Defence Minister proposed the setting up of a multinational Gendarmerie-type force. The original idea was to offer an operational, pre-organized, robust, and rapidly deployable police force, able to perform all police tasks within the scope of crisis management operations, not only for the European Union, but also for the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and other international organizations or ad hoc coalitions.
    
   The first formal step towards the setting up of the European Gendarmerie Force (hereinafter EUROGENDFOR) was taken with the Declaration of Intent, agreed by France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, at the meeting of Ministers of Defence on 17 September 2004 in Noordwijk (Netherlands).
    
    
    
   The Declaration indicates the rationale of the initiative: to provide Europe with the capability to conduct all police missions in crisis management operations, through substitution and/or strengthening of local police, contributing to the implementation of the European Security and Defence Policy, also through the development of an area (external to the European Union) of freedom, security, and justice.
    
   On 18 October 2007, the Treaty establishing EUROGENDFOR was signed in Velsen (the Netherlands). The five founding Countries were joined by Romania and, later, by Poland. Turkey and Lithuania are also part of the organization, respectively with Observer and Partner status.
    
    
   The founding document deals with EUROGENDFOR objectives and principles, missions, engagements and deployments, organizational aspects, Permanent Headquarters facilities; protection of information; personnel provisions, privileges and immunities, jurisdictional and
   disciplinary terms, legal and financial provisions as well as membership and accession modalities.
    
   As stated in article 1, EUROGENDFOR is exclusively composed of police forces with military status, capable of performing all police tasks, through substitution or strengthening of local police forces, during all phases of a crisis management operation (article 4).
    
   EUROGENDFOR members are represented in all the bodies and structures of the initiative, namely the High Level Interdepartmental Committee, the Working Group and the Financial Board.
    
   The High Level Interdepartmental Committee (CIMIN) embodies the political-strategic level of the European Gendarmerie Force. Consisting of representatives of the appropriate ministries and structures governing the participating forces, the Committee provides guidance to the initiative, adopting decisions unanimously.
    
   Representing the EUROGENDFOR operational planning and conduct capacity, the Permanent Headquarters, the only permanent EUROGENDFOR structure, consists of 38 personnel, with the possibility, in case of need, to be augmented to 50.
    
    
    
   The main Headquarters tasks are: to develop the EUROGENDFOR doctrine, implementing it, taking into account lessons learned; to plan and execute all necessary measures to ensure the EUROGENDFOR rapid deployability; to plan and run up to two operations at the same time; to provide the capacities of rapidly planning all operations from the activation and development of Fact Finding Missions to the production of the Operation Plans; to facilitate the deployment of the mission(s) by preparing all the arrangements, including i.e. specific training requirements and packages, the force generation, the definition of the Use of Force and Rules of Engagement (RoE), and the co-ordination of strategic transportation; to ensure the link between the political strategic level, the participating countries and the relevant International Organisations, reporting to the CIMIN; to support and backup the Force deployed in the field, once the mission is ongoing, in co-ordinating logistics, intelligence, information and operations; to monitor the areas of possible operational intervention and to prepare prudent planning for those areas.
    
   The EUROGENDFOR Force is defined in the Treaty of Velsen as “The personnel of the police forces with military status assigned by the parties to EUROGENDFOR to fulfil a mission or an exercise, following the transfer of authority, and a limited number of other personnel designated by the Parties in an advisory or supporting role”. To this effect, the EUROGENDFOR Force is not a stand-by (or permanently assigned) force, since it is generated on an ad hoc basis depending on the type of mission to be performed. In particular, there is the possibility to deploy up to 800 police officers within 30 days from the “notice to move” as foreseen by the Declaration of Intent.
    
   The European Gendarmerie Force logo is based on symbolic figures representing the double nature of the forces composing EUROGENDFOR, and also European values and traditions.
    
   Since its foundation, EUROGENDFOR has been deployed, under the aegis of the main International Organizations, in various theatres of operations, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger, and Mali.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
2. EUROGENDFOR mission
    
   EUROGENDFOR, is one of the most recently established instruments dedicated to the maintenance of an area of freedom, security, and justice in crisis-affected locations with an impact in Europe. It brings together police forces with military status from seven EU countries, able to perform all police tasks within the scope of crisis management operations.
    
   The gendarmerie-model military status provides gendarmerie corps with a double dependency from the Ministries of Interior and Defence, enabling them to work under a military or a civilian chain of command, as needed.
    
   The dual nature of the Gendarmerie forces composing EUROGENDFOR provides it with an added value to participate in stability operations: such a special status allows the fulfilment of all policing functions, grounded on capabilities stemming from a police approach and mind-set, and embedded in a military background.
    
   The Declaration of Intent clearly emphasizes that EUROGENDFOR shall be able to manage every aspect of the various phases of the crisis response operations:
   1. During the initial stage, carrying out stabilization operations, ensuring order and security, and substituting or strengthening weak or non-existent local police forces;
   2. During the transition phase, continuing to fulfil its mission as part of a military expeditionary force, facilitating the coordination and co-operation with local or international police units;
   3. During disengagement, facilitating a smooth transfer of responsibilities from the military to the civilian chain of command.
    
   Assumed the above-mentioned situations, EUROGENDFOR faces three possible intervention scenarios: substitution; strengthening; and other scenarios, such as humanitarian aid or planning support.
    
   EUROGENDFOR is, ultimately, capable of performing all police tasks in conflict prevention, peace-making, peace-enforcing, peacekeeping, peace building, humanitarian and rescue missions, in any crisis management operations.
    
    
    

 

[1] M. Dziedzic, “NATO Should Promptly Implement Stability Policing: Why and How”, in “Militaire Spectator”, 2-2020: “GTF are often perceived as paramilitary forces like militias, which indicates an abject ignorance of the civilian policing role they perform in their own countries.”;

[2] H. Hovens “Stability Policing: Why is it taking root so slowly?” on “Militaire Spectator”, 20 April 2020 https://www.militairespectator.nl/thema/operaties/artikel/stability-policing-why-it-taking-root-so-slowly  : “it cannot be ignored that GTFs have less support within the UN when it comes to peace building, peace sustainment and police reform because they are more associated with state-centric coercion rather than with community service. Up to now, GTFs seem to have proved to be unsuccessful, or insufficiently successful, to adequately refute objections concerning the military status of the forces.”; “It could help if they make clear that their core task is policing civilians and that they are not military centric. Their military characteristics (only) enable them to police civilians in less benign and unstable environments”;

[3] J .F. Voillot, « Une méconnaissance du modèle gendarmerie dans les opérations internationales de maintien de la paix », in « Revue de la Gendarmerie Nationale », n. 253 septembre 2015 :  « Les Anglo-Saxons, très dominants en nombre et postes de responsabilité dans la division de police du QG de l’onu à nEW YorK, pensent que le distinguo latin de deux forces de police pour un pays, dont l'une est militaire, est un nonsens. »

[4] Max Weber in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, translated and edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters. Palgrave Books 2015.

[5] This process is well resumed by J.L. Hovens, in “Transnational and robust proximity policing: complementary and adaptive – Gendarmerie-like forces in future international missions”, by FIEP and Koninklijke Marechaussee, 2019, Part 1.2, “Armed forces and police: simply a matter of division of labour”.

[6] Ernesto Bonelli, BG (ret) IT Army, “L'ESERCITO ITALIANO NEL CONTRASTO AL BRIGANTAGGIO” in “Rivista Militare”, 2012/2:  “What did southern "banditry" represent in the years immediately following the unification of Italy? Was it a patriotic revolt? Were they actions carried out by criminals? Even today, historians are divided and, depending on their beliefs, they express different judgments. Looking at what has happened and at the words that were said and written, we can say that, at least in the first two years, it was a fratricidal struggle among Italians who were fighting to achieve different objectives and who hated one another to the point of committing heinous crimes. It was a real war waged by an Army which was being re-organized against well-organized armed gangs”.

[7]“I Carabinieri nella campagna contro il brigantaggio” http://www.carabinieri.it/arma/curiosita/non-tutti-sanno-che/b/brigantaggio.

[8] https://www.force-publique.net/sources/Annuaire/Pologne-gb.html

[9] “Carabinieri Ethics”, in CoESPU Magazine 2017-4, by Carabinieri Maj. Gen. Enzo Bernardini.

[10] On the Italian situation, Nicola Conforti “The Italian Carabinieri Corps: old traditions for a modern version”, in “GENDARMERIES AND THE SECURITY CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY”, J.L. Hovens, G.A.G. van Elk (Eds.), by FIEP and Koninklijke Marechaussee, 2011. In his article Conforti describes also the Italian public security system, which for his peculiarity is worth mentioning: “The Italian public security system is based on two police forces with a general competence: the Carabinieri Corps and the State Police. The Carabinieri, as already emphasised, is a widespread territorial organisation; the State Police, with a civil status, is present in the 103 Italian provincial cities and in the major towns. The other three Police Forces have specific tasks: the Penitentiaries’ Police, the State Forestry Corps (merged in 2016 in the Carabinieri Corps, Ed.) and Guardia di Finanza [tributary police, also with military status]. The presence of different law enforcement agencies represents a democratic guarantee for correct and fair behaviour in the exercise of police duties, but, at the same time, requires coordination and planning activity to minimise the risks of possible overlapping and/or conflicting interests. An ad hoc law ensures the smooth coordination amongst all the Italian Police Forces. Italy is the sole nation in Europe that avails itself of such legislation. This system constitutes a comprehensive framework made up of several bodies, both individual and collective, at the national, regional and provincial levels”.  The State Forestry Corps was recently included into the Carabinieri, adding in this way further capabilities to this force.

[11] French Ministry of the Interior, “Livre blanc de la sécurité intérieure, Ministère de l'intérieur », 16 november 2020 (https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Livre-blanc-de-la-securite-interieure).

[12] “Carabinieri Ethics”, in CoESPU Magazine 2017-4, by Carabinieri Maj. Gen. Enzo Bernardini

[13] Michael Dziedzic, Col, US Air Force (Ret.), in “Militaire Spectator”,  2020-2: “After publishing Policing the New World Disorder, Ambassador Oakley and I were invited by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana to discuss our recommendation to deploy ‘constabulary forces’ to address the pub-lic security gap. This led to the deployment of Multinational Specialized Units (MSUs) to Bosnia in 1998, the precursor to NATO’s current SP concept.”

[14] Cornelius Friesendorf, “The Military and the Fight Against Serious Crime: Lessons from the Balkans” in Connections Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer 2010): “International police forces are generally unable to prevent or punish serious criminal acts such as interethnic violence and organized crime. Domestic security forces are either absent or are themselves sources of insecurity. The onus of filling public security gaps and of fighting serious crime therefore falls on international military forces. However, the military are reluctant to take on the responsibility for fighting crime, and are also not particularly good at it.”

[15] Vincenzo Coppola, Carabinieri Lt.Gen., “Carabinieri and peace operations ethics”, in CoESPU Magazine 2017-4 “I renewed this belief years after, in a different environment, when I was deployed abroad in a Peace support operations: it was in the former Yugoslavia, a land violated by a destructive war with a death toll of thousands of victims, the action of Carabinieri and other Peacekeepers - police officers and soldiers - was accepted and supported by the local population exactly for the same sense of respect and humanity”.