EUobserver.com

A coalition of German opposition politicians is still trying for a last minute block of a possible German-led EU military mission to Congo to oversee the country's elections in June.

Inside both the centre-right and social democrat parties in the government coalition there are individual MPs opposed to the mission.

German chancellor Angela Merkel in January committed the country to sending EU soldiers to Congo in meetings with French president Jacques Chirac.

Some ten EU countries are expected to take part in the Congo mission. Spain and Portugal would each send 100 soldiers, Sweden and Belgium up to 50 each, according to media reports.

Germany would lead the mission from headquarters in Potsdam, near Berlin and contribute 500 soldiers. France would also send 500, bringing the total number of soldiers in the EU force to 1,500.

The UN already has 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo but has requested more help to safeguard the first free elections in the country since independence in 1961, due to be held 18 June.

Most of the critical German MPs are Christian Democrats, mainly from the CSU wing of the party, reported Spiegel Online. But CSU leader Edmund Stoiber has backed the mission, making it hard for individual MPs to vote against it.

The Social Democrat party also has voices critical about the mission.

So far, however, only the Liberal FDP and the Left Party have declared they will vote against the mission.

"Ultimately the mission is about placing the EU as a player on the global scene", said Paul Schafer from the Left party, according to the FT Deutschland.

The government has however strategic important backing from leaders of the Green party, Renate Kunast and Fritz Kuhn, who have pledged support for the initiative.

"The EU must support the UN in this decisive moment", they wrote in a letter to the chancellor.

The EU’s first independent military operation outside Europe was the so-called Operation Artemis to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The major part of the EU force consisted of around 1,700 French troops.

The mission ended in September 2003, but prompted a Franco-British initiative for the EU to begin the so-called battle group concept. This was later fleshed out in an ambitious document - Headline Goal 2010 - which outlines the development of EU military capabilities.

In December 2004, the EU signed an agreement worth €80 million to help the Democratic Republic of Congo hold the elections.

This financial support is the largest contribution that the EU has ever dedicated to supporting an election process, according to Belgian EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony, is still struggling to recover from a five-year long civil war that killed some three million.

German green light to Congo mission still disputed