OCCAR was established on 12 November 1996 by the Defence Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Legal status was not achieved, however, until January 2001 when the parliaments of the four founding states ratified the OCCAR Convention.

[1] Australia also participates in OCCAR as a non-member with a focus on the Boxer, Tiger ARH and MU-90 Impact platforms.

[2] In 2023 Australia became the first non-European country to act as a participating state as part of OCCAR when it signed onto the MU-90 In-service support program.

OCCAR-EA is headed by the OCCAR Director (Joachim Sucker since Feb 2023) and consists of a Central Office and the Programme Divisions.