European Air Group was established in 1995 to build on close collaboration between the British and French air forces in the first Gulf War and the subsequent Balkans operations. The European Air Group consists today of 7 member nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom) working together to stimulate change and collectively to enhance the tactical capabilities of the Group’s air forces through better cooperation.
The EAG established the European Airlift Coordination Centre (EACC) at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands on 1 September 2001. The EACC later became the European Airlift Centre and was joined at Eindhoven by a sealift coordination centre. On 1 July 2007 the two centres merged fully to become the Movement Coordination Centre Europe, by which time 15 nations, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom, were part of the organisation.
Since 1. July 2010 the European Air Transport Command is operational at Eindhoven Airport. The EACC members France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany have dedicate all military cargo aircraft to the EATC especially the existing fleet of Transall C-160 and C-130 Hercules.
Famous quotes containing the words european, air and/or group:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and tempest, which exhaust themselves in a little time, and leave the air more calm and serene than before.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Belonging to a group can provide the child with a variety of resources that an individual friendship often cannot—a sense of collective participation, experience with organizational roles, and group support in the enterprise of growing up. Groups also pose for the child some of the most acute problems of social life—of inclusion and exclusion, conformity and independence.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)