"Milites civisque alacrites"
In 1997, after the operations supporting the peace in the Balkans, the NATO gave the Forces a capability of Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) to interact with the civil environment and facilitate the success of the mission. In fact the latest conflicts were characterized for the involvement of the civil population determining an afflux in the Area of Operations of personnel from International, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations.
In that way the number of subjects that the military component has to confront and coordinate with for the success of the mission. As a consequence the NATO CIMIC doctrine has been changed and a unit of specialists was constituted for the Civil-Military Cooperation. As a framework nation, Italy has promoted its establishment on 1st January 2002 assuming the leadership of the "Multinational CIMIC Group", located in Motta di Livenza and with the participation of Italy, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. On 26th February 2004 the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed in Venice by the representatives of the Countries that participated in the project: Italy, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Romania and the NATO Command representative in Europe. Since 28th April 2009, after a modification of the Memorandum of Understanding decided by the Nations of the Coordinating Committee at the SHAPE and signed by the national Representatives of Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Hungary as well as SHAPE, the CIMIC Group South was renamed as Multinational CIMIC Group. That document defines the tasks of the Unit during its employment in war operations and in maintaining the peace. The first operational activity started on 29th June 2003 with the participation of a CIMIC Centre in the "Ancient Babylon" Operation in Iraq.