Division 1 Introduction

At Helsinki, the EU Member States decided to establish within the Council new permanent political and military bodies enabling the EU to assume its responsibilities for the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks defined in the EU Treaty (TEU). As provided for in the Helsinki report, the EUMS, ‘within the Council structures provides military expertise and support to the CESDP, including the conduct of EU-led military crisis management operations’.

At its meeting of 12 and 13 December 2003, the European Council welcomed the document entitled ‘European Defence, NATO/EU consultation, planning and operations’. On 16 and 17 December 2004 the European Council endorsed the detailed proposals for the implementation of this document. The Terms of Reference of the EUMS are defined as follows: