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It is the source of the EU's military expertise;

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It assures the link between the EUMC on the one hand and the military resources available to the EU on the other, and it provides military expertise to EU bodies as directed by the EUMC;

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It performs three main operational functions: early warning, situation assessment and strategic planning;

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It provides an early warning capability. It plans, assesses and makes recommendations regarding the concept of crisis management and the general military strategy and implements the decisions and guidance of the EUMC;

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It supports the EUMC regarding situation assessment and military aspects of strategic planning (1), over the full range of missions and tasks referred to in Article 17(2) of the TEU, including those identified in the European Security Strategy, for all cases of EU-led operations, whether or not the EU draws on NATO assets and capabilities;

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It supports (upon request of the SG/HR or the Political and Security Committee (PSC)) temporary missions to third countries or international organisations, in order to provide, as required, advice and assistance on military aspects of conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict stabilisation;

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It contributes to the process of elaboration, assessment and review of the capability goals, taking into account the need, for those Member States concerned, to ensure consistency with NATO's Defence Planning Process (DPP) and the Planning and Review Process (PARP) of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) in accordance with agreed procedures;

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It works in close coordination with the European Defence Agency;

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It has the responsibility of monitoring, assessing and making recommendations on training, exercises and interoperability in connection with the forces and capabilities made available to the EU by the Member States;

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It maintains the capacity to reinforce the national HQ designated to conduct an EU autonomous operation, primarily through the Civ/Mil Cell;

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It has the responsibility, through the Civ/Mil Cell, of generating the capacity to plan and run an autonomous EU military operation, and maintains the capacity within EUMS rapidly to set up an operations centre for a specific operation, in particular where a joint civil/military response is required and where no national HQ is identified, once a decision on such an operation has been taken by the Council, upon the advice of the EUMC.

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It provides military expertise to the Secretary-General/High Representative and to EU bodies, under the direction of the EUMC;

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It monitors potential crises by relying on appropriate national and multinational intelligence capabilities;

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It supplies the Situation Centre with military information and receives its output;

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It carries out the military aspects of strategic advance planning;

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It identifies and lists European national and multinational forces for EU-led operations coordinating with NATO;

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It contributes to the development and preparation (including training and exercises) of national and multinational forces made available by the Member States to the EU. The modalities of the relationship with NATO are defined in the relevant documents;

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It organises and coordinates the procedures with national and multinational HQs including those NATO HQs available to the EU, ensuring, as far as possible, compatibility with NATO procedures;

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It contributes to the military aspects of the ESDP dimension of the fight against terrorism;

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It contributes to the development of concepts, doctrine, plans and procedures for the use of military assets and capabilities for natural or man-made disaster consequence management operations;

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It programmes, plans, conducts and evaluates the military aspects of the EU's crisis management procedures, including the exercising of EU/NATO procedures;

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It participates in the financial estimation of operations and exercises;

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It liaises with the national HQs and the multinational HQs of the multinational forces;

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It establishes permanent relations with NATO according to ‘EU/NATO Permanent arrangements’;

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It hosts a NATO Liaison Team at the EUMS and it maintains an EU Cell at SHAPE in accordance with ESDP Presidency Report adopted by the Council on 13 December 2004;

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It establishes appropriate relations with identified correspondents within the UN as well as other international organisations, including the OSCE and the AU, subject to an agreement from these organisations;

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It contributes to the necessary comprehensive lessons learned process;

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Tasks undertaken through the Civ/Mil Cell:

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It requests and processes specific information from the intelligence organisations and other relevant information from all available sources;

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It supports the EUMC in its contributions to Initial Planning Guidance and Planning Directives of the PSC;

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It develops and prioritises military strategic options as the basis for the military advice given by the EUMC to the PSC by:

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It identifies in coordination with national planning staffs and, as appropriate, NATO, the forces that might participate in possible EU-led operations;

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It assists the operation commander in technical exchanges with third countries offering military contributions to an EU-led operation, and in the preparation of the force generation conference;

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It continues to monitor crisis situations;

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Tasks undertaken through the Civ/Mil Cell:

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The EUMS, acting under the direction of the EUMC, continuously monitors all the military aspects of operations. It conducts strategic analysis in liaison with the designated operation commander to support the EUMC in its advisory role to the PSC in charge of the strategic direction;

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In the light of political and operational developments, it provides new options to the EUMC as a basis for EUMC's military advice to the PSC;

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It contributes to the key nucleus reinforced, and to further augmentation, as required, of the EU Ops Centre;

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Tasks undertaken through the Civ/Mil Cell:

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The EUMS works under the military direction of the EUMC, to which it reports;

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It is a Council Secretariat department directly attached to the SG/HR and it works in close cooperation with other departments of the Council Secretariat;

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It is headed by the DGEUMS, a 3-star flag officer;

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It is composed of personnel seconded from the Member States acting in an international capacity, in accordance with the rules applicable to national experts and military staff on secondment to the General Secretariat of the Council, as well as civil servants seconded from the GSC and the Commission. With the aim of improving the EUMS selection process, Member States are encouraged to present more than one candidate for each of the posts applied for;

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In order to cope with the full spectrum of missions and tasks the EUMS is organised as in Annex ‘A’;

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In crisis management situations or exercises, the EUMS may set up Crisis Action Teams (CAT), drawing upon its own expertise, manpower and infrastructure. In addition, it could, if necessary, request through the EUMC, manpower for temporary augmentation from the EU Member States;

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The mission, function and organisation of the Civ/Mil Cell, as well as the operations centre configuration were approved by the Council on 13 December and endorsed by the European Council on 16-17 December 2004. The EUMC will provide guidance, through DGEUMS, on the military activities undertaken by the Civ/Mil Cell. Contributions by the Cell for civilian aspects of crisis management remain under the functional responsibility of DG E. Reporting on these activities to the CIVCOM will be in accordance with established procedures on civilian aspects of crisis management.