The EU has been carrying out crisis management military exercises since 2002 to test the effectiveness of military command structures and procedures. The Strategic Compass calls for the EU to conduct more regular exercises, including live exercises, which entail the use of joint military forces and capabilities of EU Member States.
This year’s EU exercise is MILEX 24. The focus of MILEX 24 is to increase the designated European Union Headquarters (EU HQs) ability to plan, command and control a CSDP military operation, as the second in four steps in the incremental operationalisation of the EU Rapid Deployment Capacity (EU RDC).