Ireland Defence Forces Chief: Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Seán Clancy was voted to lead the EU military committee this week, and he said that Ireland’s decision to remain neutral was a contributing factor.
In a vote that was conducted in secret on Wednesday, Lieutenant General Clancy, a former Air Corps pilot from County Cork, defeated senior military leaders from Poland and Slovenia. In May 2025, he will assume the role of chair of the committee, which is the highest-ranking military position within the EU structure.
At that time, he resigned as Chief of Staff of the Defense Forces and became the first Irish officer to hold the rank of four-star general.
Lieut. Gen. Clancy will chair the military committee and be the senior military advisor to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR), a role that Josep Borrell now holds.
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According to the Irish Times, speaking on Thursday at Dublin’s Cathal Brugha Barracks, the general stated that the other Committee members valued Ireland’s military neutrality. “Otherwise, if they had different views, I would not have been elected.”
He claimed that Ireland’s neutrality and lack of NATO membership would work in its favour during the committee chair’s three-year tenure.
According to Lieutenant General Clancy, Ireland’s non-membership in NATO provides it with “transparency and objectivity” and will enable the chair to reach an agreement with the Committee’s members, who are each member state’s senior military official.
“The fact that Ireland is not a NATO member, some have looked at that as a negative. I look at as an opportunity and as a positive.”
Lieutenant General Clancy will assume the position at a time when the EU is becoming increasingly concerned about a belligerent Russia and member states are still debating how best to respond.
Lieutenant General Clancy said that it is hard to predict what will happen in Europe after the events of the last two years, but the “risks and threats to all of us in Europe and to our neighbours are very clear.” He will start his new job in a year.
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He claimed that his appointment to the position was a sign of support for Ireland’s contributions to Europe. According to the general, the position will be “at the strategic political level.”
Lieutenant. General Clancy’s three-year term will be spent entirely in Brussels, following which he will retire with a pension equivalent to that of a four-star general. He will be supported by a group of eight to ten members of the Defence Forces.
He said that for the upcoming year, he will remain chief of staff of the Defence Forces and devote all of his “commitment, energy, and focus” to changing the organisation by first strengthening it and then stabilising it, as well as putting the Commission on the Defence Forces’ recommendations into action.
