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The Movement Coordination Centre Europe is a 28-state multi-national military movement control centre at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands whose members are predominantly drawn from NATO and the EU. The centre is staffed by 32 military and civilian personnel from the participating countries. The main purpose of the MCCE is coordinating and optimising the use of airlift, sealift and land movement assets of the armed forces of the member countries.
History
The genesis of the MCCE was in 1999 when the EU and NATO identified shortfalls in military capability as the world emerged from a cold war environment into a more dynamic expeditionary operational era. The two main findings that led to the founding of the MCCE were a shortage of both strategic airlift and sealift capabilities and the absence of a coordinating body to optimise strategic lift efficiency.
The MCCE was officially established on 1 July 2007 as the merger of the earlier European Airlift Centre (EAC) and the Sealift Co-ordination Centre (SCC). On this date, the initial 15 signatory countries became official members. The MCCE has since been through several cycles of expansion: