ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ERRF was conceived as a force for crisis management action abroad, but it was not clear at the beginning how far away from Europe it would reach. As a result, a new Headline Goal was developed, reflecting the shortfalls, but also the first practical and institutional experiences which the Union had made in the field of crisis management. The Headline Goal 2010 seems to be cast after the experience of European crisis management failures of the Balkan wars in the 1990s. The ERRF would take on the 'low-end' tasks of crisis management, such as humanitarian and rescue operations and peacekeeping, while the NRF would deal with 'high-end' intense combat situations, including forced entry. The idea that crisis management should know a division of labour among the involved international institutions, based on a distinction between military and humanitarian tasks, is as old as the Dayton agreement.
