We, the EU Military Staff, are the source of military expertise within the EEAS.
We work under the direction of the Military Committee of the Member States Chiefs of Defence who deliver the military capabilities and under the direct authority of the High Representative who heads the EEAS and chairs the Foreign Affairs Council (both Foreign Affairs and Defence).

The EEAS coordinates the external actions of the EU. As the EU's diplomatic service it is also responsible for the development and execution of the Common Security and Defence Policy. We are proud to be the military component of this team.

We strengthen the diplomatic leverage of the EU, because together with Member States we ensure that the EU can act militarily being one of its instruments of power. We assure that our preparations and actions always fit within the political goals of the EU.

As an integral element of the EU's Comprehensive Approach - to crisis management, we coordinate military action. We do so with a focus on operations and the creation of future military capabilities. For this, we coordinate the military dimensions with the Member State Defence Staffs, the European Defence Agency, the European Commission, NATO, UN, AU and strategic partner countries. We do so in full concert with all our partners within the EAS and specifically the Crisis Management Planning Directorate, the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability and our partners for crisis response.

The military can be used across the full spectrum of crisis prevention, response and management; ranging from support to Humanitarian Assistance, Civil Protection, Security Sector Reform, stabilization and evacuation of citizens, to more complex military operations such as peace keeping and peace enforcement.

We have been established to ensure the availability of the military instrument with all its domains as one integrated military organization. If called upon, we will support our civilian colleagues with our broad range of expertise, for instance:
planning, intelligence, medical, engineering, infrastructure, transport (land, sea, air), other logistic support, communication, IT, security, cyber, education, exercises, and lessons learned.

Still, we will not forget that the raison d'être for the military, is the ability to act quickly as one integrated entity for the broad range of military options, including complex Combined Joint Operations.

In concert with the EU Military Committee and EEAS-partners, we create the circumstances in which military can conduct their missions and operations together with their civilian partners in the field. If security reasons deny others the ability to operate, the military will stand and act as necessary, accepting the related risks.

This gives us a special responsability.