"Heiko Maas, the Foreign Minister of the current EU Presidency Germany, defined recently in a public speech civilian crisis management as the centrepiece of the (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy. Indeed, since the launch 2003 of the first civilian CSDP Mission, the EU's civilian CSDP Missions have, with their specific tailored mandates and staff representing the concentrated European expertise in civilian security and rule of law, proven their utility as an essential tool of EU external action”, says Mr Esteban Perez .” I look forward to applying my professional experience in my role as Operations Commander of the currently eleven civilian Missions deployed in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

Mr Esteban Perez served in his previous function as the Commander of the Guardia Civil in Castilla-La Mancha, with a population of over 2 million. He commands a professional career of 40 years in his home country Spain, EU headquarters in Brussels and international assignments. He served, among his many assignments, as Commander of the European Gendarmerie Force and contributed substantially to the establishment of predecessor unit of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability.

 Background: The Civilian Operations Commander leads the eleven civilian CSDP Missions deployed in Europe, Africa and the Middle East employing currently around 2,000 staff. In this function, the Civilian Operations Commander is also the Director of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), the directorate of the European External Action Service, serving, with a staff of 100, as the operational headquarters of the civilian CSDP Missions. The High Representative appoints the Director of CPCC, who in that capacity will also exercise the task of Civilian Operations Commander for each civilian mission upon decision of the Council.