The Dutch Air Manoeuvre Brigade is being fused with a similar German unit and falls under German command from Thursday.

It is the first time a Dutch and a German military unit have been combined, bringing the Dutch soldiers under the command of a German major-general.

Dutch defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and her German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen will attend the integration ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of the German division in Stadtallendorf.

Rapid

‘The objective is for the Netherlands and Germany to have a well-integrated unit by 2018 that can be rapidly deployed anywhere in the world, as long as both countries agree,’ Hennis told the media.

‘It is a unique step and an important milestone in German-Dutch defence cooperation,’ she said.

EU army

According to defence expert Rob de Wijk of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, it is the first step towards a European army. ‘It goes much further than the cooperation we have seen so far,’ he told the Volkskrant.

The new brigade will consist of 8,000 German soldiers and 2,000 Dutch soldiers. The Dutch brigade will remain at its bases in Schaarsbergen and Assen.