In 1997, following peace support operations in the Balkan area, NATO recognized its need for a civil-military cooperation capability (CIMIC) to interface with the civil environment and facilitate the accomplishment of its mission.

Indeed, conflicts in the recent past have been characterized by a considerable involvement of the civilian population, leading to a massive presence of International GO and NGO personnel in the Area of Operations. This has increased exponentially the number of actors the military has had to deal with in order to succeed in the mission.

Consequently, NATO reviewed its doctrine and decided to create a specialized unit, incumbent and solely responsible for civil–military cooperation. Italy, among other countries, took in the demand for this specialized unit and promoted, as framework and leader nation, the creation of a “CIMIC Group South” in Motta di Livenza, on January 1, 2002 with the participation of Italy, Greece, Hungary and Portugal.

On February 26, 2004 the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed by the representatives of the five participating nations: Italy, Greece, Portugal, Hungary and Romania in the presence of a representative of SHAPE.

Since 28th of April, 2009 “CIMIC Group South” denomination was changed into “Multinational CIMIC Group”. This modification was approved by the Participating Nations, and reflected in the new Memorandum of Understanding, signed by SHAPE and by National Military Representatives of Greece, Italy, Hungary, Portugal and Romania.

This document lays down the tasks of the unit either in warfare or peacekeeping operations.

The first operational commitment started on June 29, 2003 with the personnel of the Cimic Centre involved in operation “ANTICA BABILONIA” in Iraq. 

The Multinational CIMIC Group can be tasked with Collective Defense Operations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and Crisis Response Operations under non-Article 5 in support of peace and international security.

The MNCG represents the only Operational CIMIC Headquarters within NATO and can be deployed in support of units up to army corps level, with the aid of CIMIC Group structure assets from participating nations. It carries out its task of linking Alliance forces and the civilian environment in two ways: deploying a core group of specialists named “Deployable Module” to coordinate CIMIC Group efforts, and providing specific advice to the Force Commander.

Furthermore and depending on the situation, it can provide one or more CIMIC CENTRES. These are meeting points, which can vary in number according to the situation, for local authorities and the civilian population.

Finally the MNCG Regt also represents a Centre for Training, Education and permanent expertise and consultancy in the matter of civil-military cooperation. In this capacity it organizes multilateral adjournment meetings, as well as NATO BASIC CIMIC COURSES, and is constantly in contact with the most important International Organizations and Italian and foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).