MPCC: towards an EU military command?

The November 2016 Council Conclusions on the implementation of the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) invited the High Representative to present proposals to establish, ‘as a short term objective, and in accordance with the principle of avoiding unnecessary duplication with NATO’, ‘a permanent operational planning and conduct capability at the strategic level for non-executive military missions’. 

This new structure, to be called ‘military planning and conduct capability’ (MPCC) in analogy to its civilian counterpart (Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability, CPCC) and formally created on 8 June, may well be one of the most tangible deliverables of the latest efforts to revitalise EU defence policy. Although not necessarily revolutionary in nature it is symbolic of a certain evolution of mindset after more than 15 years of politicised discrepancies among member states on the virtues of an EU proper command structure.