Director General of the European Union Military Staff
EUMS coat of arms
Incumbent Lieutenant GeneralMichiel van der Laan since 28 June 2023
European Union Military Staff
Reports to	High Representative,Military Committee
Seat	Kortenberg building,Brussels,Belgium
Term length	3 or 4 years
Formation	11 June 2001; 24 years ago (11 June 2001)
First holder	Rainer Schuwirth
Deputy	Deputy Director General of the European Union Military Staff
Website	eeas.europa.eu

TheDirector General of the European Union Military Staff (abbr.DGEUMS) is the head of theEuropean Union Military Staff (EUMS) who also serves asDirector of the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (abbr.Dir MPCC). This position, which was established in 2001, is held by athree-star general. The current holder islieutenant generalMichiel van der Laan [de], occupying the position since June 2023.^[1]

The Director General is responsible for the EUMS' work in providing strategic advice to theHigh Representative (HR), reporting to theEuropean Union Military Committee (EUMC) - representingmember states'Chiefs of Defence - and performing "early warning", situation assessment and strategic planning.

Since 2017 the DGEUMS has served as Director of theMilitary Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), and assumes the function of the single commander for all non-executivemilitary missions of theEuropean Union (EU). The DGEUMS exercises command and control over the current three training Missions and other possible future operations. Presently the MPCC may only run non-executive operations. By the end of 2020 the MPCC will be capable of running executive operations of up to 2,500 troops, i.e. the size of onebattle group.^[2]

The relationship between theHigh Representative, theMilitary Staff andMilitary Committee as of November 2017:^[3]Colour key:
 High Representative (aVice-President of theCommission)
 Military Committee (EUMC; aCouncil body)
 Military Staff (EUMS; a Directorate-General of theExternal Action Service)

High Representative

ChairmanEUMC

Working Group

Working Group/Headline Goal Task Force

Director GeneralEUMS/ Director MPCC

Legal advisor

Deputy Director General

Horizontal Coordination

Assistant Chief of Staff for Synchronisation

EU cell atSHAPE

EU Liaison at theUN 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

TheEU command and control (C2) structure is directed by political bodies composed ofmember states' representatives, and generally requires unanimous decisions. As of April 2019:^[4]

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 OpCdrCPCC[1]

Operational level:

MFCdr[4] (MFHQ)

HoM[1]

Tactical level:

CC[2]Air CC[2] Land CC[2] Mar Other CCs[2] European Armed Forces[5][6]

¹ In the event of a CSDP Civilian Mission also being in the field, the relations with theCivilian 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) andservice 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 theNATO 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. TheCouncil determines the role of theHigh Representative (HR/VP), who serves asVice-President of theEuropean Commission, attendsEuropean Council meetings, chairs theForeign Affairs Council (FAC) and may chair thePolitical and Security Committee (PSC) in times of crisis. The HR/VP proposes and implements CSDP decisions.

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

No.	Portrait	Director General	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Defence branch	Nationality
1		Schuwirth, RainerLieutenant General Rainer Schuwirth [de] (born 1945)	11 June 2001	1 March 2004	2 years, 264 days	German Army	Germany
2		Schuwirth, RainerLieutenant General Jean-Paul Perruche (born 1947)	1 March 2004	28 February 2007	2 years, 364 days	French Army	France
3		Leakey, DavidLieutenant General David Leakey (born 1952)	1 March 2007	28 May 2010	3 years, 88 days	British Army	United Kingdom
4		Osch, TonLieutenant General Ton van Osch (born 1955)	28 May 2010	28 May 2013	3 years, 0 days	Royal Netherlands Army	Netherlands
5		Wosolsobe, WolfgangLieutenant General Wolfgang Wosolsobe (1955–2018)	28 May 2013	1 May 2016	2 years, 339 days	Austrian Land Forces	Austria
6		Pulkkinen, EsaLieutenant General Esa Pulkkinen (born 1957)	1 May 2016	30 June 2020	4 years, 60 days	Finnish Army	Finland
7		Bléjean, HervéVice Admiral Hervé Bléjean (born 1963)	30 June 2020	28 June 2023	2 years, 363 days	French Navy	France
8		van der Laan, MichielLieutenant General Michiel van der Laan (born 1965)	28 June 2023	Incumbent	2 years, 148 days	Royal Netherlands Army	Netherlands

The DGEUMS is assisted by the Deputy Director General and the Chief of Staff (DDG/COS, atwo-star general).^[7]

List of Deputy Directors General

Name	Photo	Nationality	Term began	Term ended
Rear AdmiralBruce Williams		United Kingdom	2011	2015
Rear AdmiralWaldemar Głuszko		Poland	2015	2017
Major GeneralGiovanni Manione		Italy	2017	2022
Major GeneralGábor Horváth		Hungary	2022

• High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• Chairman of the European Union Military Committee
• Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
• Supreme Allied Commander Europe
• Director of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability

External videos
Change of command ceremony on 28 May 2013, YouTube video
Change of command ceremony in 2016, YouTube video

Official website

• CV of Director General Pulkkinen,Europa.eu

• Directors General of the European Union Military Staff
• European External Action Service
• Foreign relations of the European Union
• European Union security policy
• Military of the European Union
• Common Security and Defence Policy

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with bare URLs for citations
• Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022
• Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from July 2019
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia