The majority of EU defence ministers on Wednesday (1 October) backed a withdrawal of the EU’s peacekeeping force in Bosnia, but without committing to a specific date to do so.

The ministers agreed to replace the current ‘Althea’ military mission with a rapid reaction force – either civilian or military – based outside Bosnia, French defence minister Herve Morin announced after an informal meeting of the ministers in Deauville, in northern France.

The EU’s Althea force replaced the NATO-led SFOR in December 2004 to oversee the military implementation of the peace deal – the Dayton Peace Agreement – that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There were four options that were studied, but “we preferred to end the military mission in its current form,” Mr Morin, whose country currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, was quoted as saying by French news agency AFP.

“One or two countries are in favour of maintaining the forces, [but] globally the idea has formed that we will progressively move towards ending the Althea mission and transforming this mission,” he added.

According to Mr Morin, it is also a question of “credibility” to show people that besides starting a mission, the EU is “capable of saying one day that this mission must end.”

Althea currently consists of around 2,200 troops from 22 EU member states, as well as five non-EU members – Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Switzerland and Chile.