European Union Military Staff
Encyclopedia
The European Union Military Staff (EUMS) is a department of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 (EU), responsible for supervising operations within the realm of the Common Security and Defence Policy. It is directly attached to the private office of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is the main co-ordinator and representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy within the European Union...

, currently Catherine Ashton, and is formally part of the European External Action Service
European External Action Service
The European External Action Service is a European Union department that was established following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009...

.

Role

In addition to providing strategic advice to the High Representative, the EUMS reports to the European Union Military Committee
European Union Military Committee
The European Union Military Committee ' is a department of military officials under the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Political and Security Committee of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy. The EUMC gives military advice to...

 (EUMC), an intergovernmental Council body made up of the Chiefs of Defence. Its main task is to perform "early warning, situation assessment and strategic planning for Petersberg tasks" and to implement CSDP missions (2001/80/CFSP, annex article 2) such as EUFOR Althea
EUFOR Althea
European Union Force Althea is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in...

 and the other European Union Force missions in Chad/CAR and the DR Congo. The EUMS current consists of 200+ military and civilian personnel.

The EUMS is located in the Kortenberg building, a short distance from the Berlaymont building
Berlaymont building
The Berlaymont is an office building in Brussels, Belgium that houses the headquarters of the European Commission, which is the executive of the European Union...

, at Avenue de Kortenberg 150, B-1040 Brussels. Nearby is the Belgian Royal Military Academy building.
EUMS is headed by a Director General, currently Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 Ton van Osch
Ton van Osch
Lieutenant General A.G.D. van Osch is an officer and commander in the Royal Netherlands Army. He currently serves with the EU's European Council in Brussels as the Director General of the European Union Military Staff. He has a wife and two daughters.-Military career:Van Osch enrolled in the...

, who was previously the military representative of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to both the EU and NATO. He succeeded Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 David Leakey
David Leakey
Lieutenant-General Arundell David Leakey CMG, CBE is a former British military commander. He was Director General of the European Union Military Staff in the Council of the European Union, Brussels...

 (2007-2010), who succeeded FR Lieutenant General Jean-Paul Perruche (2004-2007).

The EUMS does not directly control the EU military missions. In order to conduct an EU military crisis management operation, an Operational Headquarters (OHQ) is nominated by the appropriate EU Council decision. The OHQ directs the Force Headquarters or FHQ, also provided by a member country, which carries out the operation on the ground. If an EU operation is planned and conducted with recourse to NATO assets and capabilities, the OHQ is automatically the NATO Allied Command Operations (ACO), formerly known as SHAPE, located in Mons, Belgium. In other cases, five national operational headquarters have been made available for use by the Union to fulfil the OHQ role. The French CPCO - Centre de Planification et de
Conduite des Opérations - is situated at the à l'État major des Armées, 231 boulevard St Germain, in Paris. Near Paris also is the French Mont Valérien command-and-control facility, where a French declared OHQ for EU operations is located. (It is not clear if the French Mont Valerien facility has a national designation). The others are the British PJHQ at the Northwood Headquarters
Northwood Headquarters
Northwood Headquarters is a military headquarters facility of the British Armed Forces in Eastbury, Hertfordshire, England, adjacent to the London suburb of Northwood...

 northwest of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Germany's Armed Forces Operational Command near Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

, Centocelle in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and Larissa
Larissa
Larissa is the capital and biggest city of the Thessaly region of Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is a principal agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos, the city of Thessaloniki and Athens...

. The selected OHQ runs the operation at the strategic level. For example, Operation Artemis
Operation Artemis
Operation Artemis was a short-term European Union-led military mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.In the beginning of 2003 United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or MONUC, observer teams present in that country since 1999 monitored serious combats and human rights...

 used Mont Valérien as its OHQ and EUFOR's DR Congo operation used Potsdam. The second option is to use NATO facilities, under 'Berlin plus' arrangements, as was the case for mounting EUFOR Althea
EUFOR Althea
European Union Force Althea is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in...

, for which SHAPE was used.
From 1 January 2007, as a third option, the European Union Operations Centre also began work in Brussels. It can command an operation of limited size of mixed military and civilian character, or, alternatively, a rapid reaction force of about 2000 troops (e.g. a battlegroup
European Union Battlegroups
An EU Battlegroup is a military unit adhering to the Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union . Often based on contributions from a coalition of member states, each of the eighteen Battlegroups consists of a battalion-sized force reinforced with combat support elements...

).

Operations Supervised

The Military Staff has supervised a number of deployments since its establishment. The term 'EUFOR' or 'European Union Force' has been used to describe a number of military deployments, and has been used four times so far: in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

 from March 2003 to December 2003 as EUFOR Concordia
EUFOR Concordia
EUFOR Concordia is the name of the peacekeeping mission of the European Union in the Republic of Macedonia. The EU took over from NATO's operation Allied Harmony and deployed around 300 troops to provide security to EU and OSCE monitors overseeing the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement....

, in Bosnia from 2004 as EUFOR Althea
EUFOR Althea
European Union Force Althea is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in...

, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

 in 2006, and in Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

 and the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

 since 2007. EUFOR is a temporary military deployment, not a permanent military force, and should not be confused with the Eurocorps
Eurocorps
Eurocorps is a multinational standing army corps available for the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance.Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the force was created in May 1992, activated in October 1993 and declared operational in 1995....

 or the Helsinki Headline Goal
Helsinki Headline Goal
The Helsinki Headline Goal was a military capability target set for 2003 during the December 1999 Helsinki European Council meeting with the aim of developing a future European Rapid Reaction Force...

 Force Catalogue, sometime misleadingly known as the 'European Rapid Reaction Force'. The name probably was patterned in imitation of NATO's IFOR
IFOR
The Implementation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour. Its task was to implement the military Annexes of The General Framework Agreement for...

, SFOR
SFOR
The Stabilisation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR...

, and KFOR.

EUFOR Althea

EUFOR Althea
EUFOR Althea
European Union Force Althea is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in...

 is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...

. It is the successor to SFOR
SFOR
The Stabilisation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR...

 and IFOR
IFOR
The Implementation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour. Its task was to implement the military Annexes of The General Framework Agreement for...

. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in place. It replaced the NATO-led SFOR
SFOR
The Stabilisation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR...

 on 2 December 2004.

EUFOR Tchad/RCA

EUFOR also refers to the EU mission under the auspices and in the framework of MINURCAT in Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

 and the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

, from late 2007 onwards.

EUFOR DR Congo

The acronym EUFOR was also used for a short deployment in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. On 25 April 2006, the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

 adopted Resolution 1671
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1671
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1671, adopted unanimously on April 25, 2006, after recalling previous resolutions concerning the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly resolutions 1565 , 1592 , 1621 and 1635 , the Council authorised the deployment of the...

 (2006), authorising the temporary deployment of an EU force to support the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO , is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was established by the United Nations Security Council in resolutions 1279...

 (MONUC) during the period encompassing the elections in the DR Congo, which began on 30 July.

Possible EUFOR Libya

The Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb
Alexander Stubb
Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 4 April 2008 to 22 June 2011...

 has announced that the EU is prepared for a EUFOR Libya, and is waiting for a request from the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

. EU member states Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and the UK are already committed to the enforcement of the UN resolution
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, on the situation in Libya, is a measure that was adopted on 17 March 2011. The Security Council resolution was proposed by France, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom....

.

See also

  • Franco-British Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty and Downing Street Declaration
  • Common Foreign and Security Policy
    Common Foreign and Security Policy
    The Common Foreign and Security Policy is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, which domains include mainly Trade and Commercial Policy and other areas...

  • Common Security and Defence Policy
  • Military of the European Union
    Military of the European Union
    The military of the European Union today comprises the several national armed forces of the Union's 27 member states, as the policy area of defence has remained primarily the domain of nation states...

  • General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
    General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
    The General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, better known as Council Secretariat, assists the Council of the European Union, the Council Presidency, European Council and the President of the European Council. The General Secretariat is currently headed by Secretary-General Uwe...

  • High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
    High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
    The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is the main co-ordinator and representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy within the European Union...

  • Council of the European Union
    Council of the European Union
    The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...

  • European Maritime Force (Euromarfor)

External links

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