The Helsinki Headline Goal was a military capability target set for 2003 during the December 1999 Helsinki European Council meeting with the aim of developing a future European Rapid Reaction Force.[1] There was much interest in the idea of a single EU military force, and inexact characterisations of the initiative (which was not much more than some headquarters arrangements and a list of theoretically available national forces) led to imprecise journalistic depictions about a unified European army.[2]