It was a simple task. The flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was removed on Monday from the peacekeeping force in the small southeastern European country of Macedonia and was replaced with the flag of the European Union.

But though the move may have been simple, it is filled with symbolic meaning for the EU, the 15-member organization that has seen its effort to form a collective security policy torn apart by the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

"It is a test, above all a political one," Andre Dumoulin of the Belgian Royal Military School said of the Macedonia mission.

The EU force of about 350 soldiers, dubbed Operation Concordia, is taking over from NATO troops which remained in the battle-scarred former Yugoslav republic after helping end a seven-month ethnic insurrection in 2001. All EU countries except Denmark and Finland will contribute to the force, which has a six-month renewable mandate, along with 14 other nations including Canada, Poland and Turkey. Germany plans to deploy up to 70 soldiers.

NATO works in the background

Even though the mission is officially in EU hands, NATO will still provide planning support and the overall commander, German Admiral Rainer Feist is also the alliance's deputy supreme allied commander in Europe.

"It is notable that both organizations -- NATO and in the future the European Union -- have begun a very successful mission and will continue to operate it," Feist told DW-WORLD. "You really have to say that even though this mission is small, it stopped a civil war from breaking out in Macedonia."

Macedonia appeared to be on the brink of civil war in the winter of 2001, when ethnic Albanian gunmen launched an insurgency to seek more rights for members of their community. Albanians make up around a quarter of the country's two million people. They live mostly in the west, along Macedonia's border with Albania and Kosovo. Eventually, about 150 people were killed in the fighting. A peace accord signed in August 2001 formalized many of those rights and opened the way for 4,500 NATO troops to collect weapons laid down by rebels. The size and nature of the mission changed afterward. The force was cut to about 350 soldiers who were assigned to protect international observers.

The mission of the new force, known as EUFOR, will be to monitor the situation and show a visible international presence.

EU plans bigger role in Balkans

The force is the first concrete manifestation of the EU's security ambitions. It is also an indication of Europe's aim to assume a bigger role in the Balkans, where it has been running a police mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina since January.

The EU is also considering the possibility of taking over responsibility for the 12,000-member Stabilization Force in Bosnia from NATO. EU leaders raised the prospect of taking over SFOR in December. France and Britain have suggested a possible handover at the start of next year.

The launch of the operation comes as the 15-member union works to build a functioning defense arm as part of efforts to fill the gulf between its military capabilities and those of the United States. The spearhead of the EU's military might is to be a Rapid Reaction Force of 60,000 troops ready to be deployed on short notice to peacekeeping operations across the region. This reaction force is to be up and running from May.

Members divided over Iraq

But the launch in Macedonia comes at a bad time for the EU, which is struggling to heal unprecedented rifts caused by the war on Iraq. "European defense policy must not be harmed by these divisions," one diplomat told the wire service AFP, while several European countries argue that the splits over Iraq demonstrate all the more the need for greater cooperation on security issues.

NATO will not withdraw entirely from Macedonia: the alliance will leave two representatives there and would stand ready to redeploy troops if necessary.