European Union Military Committee

European Union Military Committee
Coat of arms
Active	December 2000–present
Allegiance	European Union
Location	Brussels, Belgium
Website	europa.eu
Commanders
High Repr.	Kaja Kallas
Chairman	General Seán Clancy
Insignia
Flag
Chairman's arms

The Military Committee of the European Union (EUMC) is the body of the European Union's (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy that is composed of member states' Chiefs of Defence (CHOD). These national CHODs are regularly represented in the EUMC in Brussels by their permanent Military Representatives (MilRep), who often are two- or three-star flag officers.

The EUMC is under the authority of the EU's High Representative (HR) and the Political and Security Committee (PSC).

History

The EUMC was established in December 2000 by the European Council of Nice. It is one of several defence and security-related bodies established as a result of the Helsinki Headline Goal, which was decided in December 1999.

Function

The EUMC gives military advice to the EU's High Representative (HR) and Political and Security Committee (PSC). The EUMC also oversees the European Union Military Staff (EUMS).

The relationship between the High Representative, the Military Staff and Military Committee as of November 2017: ^[1] Colour key:
  High Representative (a Vice-President of the Commission)
  Military Committee (EUMC; a Council body)
  Military Staff (EUMS; a Directorate-General of the External Action Service)

High Representative

Chairman EUMC

Working Group

Working Group/Headline Goal Task Force

Director General EUMS/ Director MPCC

Legal advisor

Deputy Director General

Horizontal Coordination

Assistant Chief of Staff for Synchronisation

EU cell at SHAPE

EU Liaison at the UN in NY

Assistant Chief of Staff for External Relations

NATO Permanent Liaison Team

Concepts & Capabilities Directorate

Intelligence Directorate

Operations Directorate

Logistics Directorate

Communications & Information Systems Directorate

Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) Chief of Staff Working Group Current Operations

Role in command and control of missions

Further information: Command and control structure of the European Union

The EU command and control (C2) structure is directed by political bodies composed of member states' representatives, and generally requires unanimous decisions. As of April 2019: ^[2]

Liaison:       Advice and recommendations       Support and monitoring       Preparatory work     

• v
• t
• e

Political strategic level: [5]

ISS

EUCO Pres. (EUCO)

Chain of command

Coordination/support

SatCen

CIVCOM

HR/VP (FAC)

INTCEN

HR/VP (PMG)

HR/VP (PSC) [6]

CEUMC (EUMC)

CMPD

DGEUMS [3] (EUMS)

Military/civilian strategic level:

Dir MPCC [3] ( MPCC )

JSCC

Civ OpCdr CPCC [1]

Operational level:

MFCdr [4] (MFHQ)

HoM [1]

Tactical level:

CC [2] Land

CC [2] Air

CC [2] Mar

Other CCs [2]

Forces

Forces

Forces

Forces

¹ In the event of a CSDP Civilian Mission also being in the field, the relations with the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) and its Civilian Operation Commander (Civ OpCdr), as well as the subordinate Head of Mission (HoM), are coordinated as shown.

² Other Component Commanders (CCs) and service branches which may be established.

³ The MPCC is part of the EUMS and Dir MPCC is double-hatted as DGEUMS. Unless the MPCC is used as Operation Headquarters (OHQ), either a national OHQ offered by member states or the NATO Command Structure (NCS) would serve this purpose. In the latter instance, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), rather than Dir MPCC, would serve as Operation Commander (OpCdr).

⁴ Unless the MPCC is used as Operation Headquarters (OHQ), the MFCdr would be known as a Force Commander (FCdr), and direct a Force Headquarters (FHQ) rather than a MFHQ. Whereas the MFHQ would act both on the operational and tactical level, the FHQ would act purely on the operational level.

⁵ The political strategic level is not part of the C2 structure per se, but represents the political bodies, with associated support facilities, that determine the missions' general direction. The Council determines the role of the High Representative (HR/VP), who serves as Vice-President of the European Commission, attends European Council meetings, chairs the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) and may chair the Political and Security Committee (PSC) in times of crisis. The HR/VP proposes and implements CSDP decisions.

⁶ Same composition as Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) II, which also prepares for the CSDP-related work of the FAC.

Current EU Chiefs of Defence

Member	CHOD	Member	CHOD	Member	CHOD
Chief of the General Staff of Austria	Major General Rudolf Striedinger  [ de ] of the   Austrian Land Forces	Chief of Defence of Belgium	General Frederik Vansina of the   Belgian Air Component	Chief of Defence of Bulgaria	Admiral Emil Eftimov of the   Bulgarian Navy
Chief of the General Staff of Croatia	Colonel general Tihomir Kundid of the   Croatian Army	Chief of the General Staff of Cyprus	Lieutenant General Georgios Tsitsikostas of the   Cypriot Ground Forces	Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Republic	Lieutenant General Karel Řehka of the Czech Special Forces
Chief of Defence of Denmark	Major General Michael Hyldgaard of the   Royal Danish Army	Commander of the Defence Forces of Estonia	Major General Andrus Merilo of the   Estonian Land Forces	Chief of Defence of Finland	General Janne Jaakkola of the Finnish Army
Chief of the Defence Staff of France	General Thierry Burkhard of the French Army	Inspector General of the Bundeswehr of Germany	General Carsten Breuer of the   German Army	Chief of the General Staff of Greece	General Dimitrios Choupis  [ el ] of the   Hellenic Army
Chief of the General Staff of Hungary	Colonel General Gábor Böröndi of the   Hungarian Ground Forces	Chief of Staff of Ireland	Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy of the   Irish Army	Chief of the Defence Staff of Italy	General Luciano Portolano of the   Italian Army
Commander of the Armed Forces of Latvia	Major General Kaspars Pudāns of the Latvian National Guard	Chief of Defence of Lithuania	General Raimundas Vaikšnoras of the   Lithuanian Land Force	Chief of Defence of Luxembourg	General Steve Thull of the   Luxembourg Army
Commander of the Armed Forces of Malta	Brigadier Clinton J. O'Neill of the Armed Forces of Malta	Chief of Defence of the Netherlands	General Onno Eichelsheim of the   Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force	Chief of the General Staff of Poland	General Wiesław Kukuła of the Polish Territorial Defence Forces
Chief of the General Staff of Portugal	General José Nunes da Fonseca  [ pt ] of the   Portuguese Army	Chief of the General Staff of Romania	General Gheorghiță Vlad of the   Romanian Land Forces	Chief of the General Staff of Slovakia	Lieutenant General Daniel Zmeko of the Slovak Ground Forces
Chief of the General Staff of Slovenia	Brigadier Dean Groff  [ sl ] of the Slovenian Ground Force	Chief of the Defence Staff of Spain	Admiral General Teodoro Esteban López Calderón of the Spanish Navy	Chief of Defence of Sweden	General Michael Claesson of the   Swedish Army

Chairman

Main article: Chairman of the European Union Military Committee

General Seán Clancy has been serving as EUMCC since the 1 of June 2025.

The EUMC is chaired by a General Officer, Admiral, or Air Officer of four-star level (i.e. NATO OF-9 equivalent), who is selected by the Chiefs of Defence and appointed by the Council of the European Union. For a term of three years the chairman is the spokesperson for the EUMC. He participates in PSC meetings as appropriate, he is the military adviser to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR) who heads the EEAS European External Action Service, he represents the primary point of contact with the Operation Commanders of the EU's military operations, and he attends Council meetings with defence and security implications. ^[3]

See also

• European Union portal

• Common Security and Defence Policy
• European External Action Service
• Military of the European Union
• Political and Security Committee
• European Union Military Staff
• NATO Military Committee

A similar committee also exists within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Those countries which are members of both EU and NATO have in most cases chosen to use the same MilRep in both organisations.

References

1. "Impetus" (PDF). eeas.europa.eu. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
2. EU Command and Control, p. 13, Military Staff
3. "CONSILIUM - Chairman EUMC". www.consilium.europa.eu. Archived from the original on 2011-11-26.

External links

• CSDP structure, instruments, and agencies, EEAS website
• Mai'a K. Davis Cross: "The Military Dimension of European Security: An Epistemic Community Approach." (2013) Millennium Journal of International Studies, 42(1): 45–64.