The Director General of the European Union Military Staff (EUMS), Lieutenant General Michiel van der Laan welcomed the Director General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s International Military Staff (IMS), Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak and his staff to the EUMS Headquarters for 20th EUMS/IMS Director Generals Conference, which took place on 01 December 2023.
The EUMS - NATO IMS Director Generals (DGs) Conference enables both DGs and their respective staffs to report on the progress of the joint work plan agreed by the EUMS and the NATO IMS, as well as to exchange views and discuss ongoing collaboration and cooperation between both organisations.
The 20th EUMS-IMS DGs Conference was Lt Gen Van der Laan's first as Director General of the EUMS. In his opening remarks, he welcomed the NATO Director General of the IMS and his staff back to the EUMS HQ. He also took the opportunity to acknowledge that the EU-NATO partnership was more important than ever with regard to the current global security climate. "This conference is one of the best examples of the fruitful cooperation between NATO and the EU. Its steady pace is instrumental in developing the excellent cooperation even further."
Taking the floor, Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak, thanked the EUMS for hosting the conference and for the ongoing staff-to-staff cooperation between both organisations. Lieutenant General Adamczak emphasised the importance of the meeting as "an essential activity, not only because it guides the cooperation between our two staffs, but more importantly, because it is a key part of the larger effort to increase the over-all level of NATO-EU cooperation in line with the political expectation, reflected in our higher political documents such as the NATO Strategic Concept, the EU Strategic Compass and, most recently, the Vilnius communique".
EUMS Deputy Director General, Major General Gábor Horvath introduced the agenda for the conference. Agenda items included follow-on tasks from the previous EUMS-IMS DGs Conference, which took place in June 2023. Major General Horvath outlined the continuing EU-NATO cooperation and information exchange in a number of key areas, which are central to further collaboration. Areas of discussion included Military Mobility, Medical Cooperation, CIS/Cyber interoperability and Gender perspectives. The joint EUMS and IMS staffs also discussed topics such as EU-NATO information exchange and the follow-on tasks for the next conference. The meeting concluded with both DG EUMS and DG NATO IMS providing their guidance and closing remarks on the way ahead for 2024.
The next EUMS-IMS DGs Conference will be hosted by NATO and is scheduled to take place in May 2024.
