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EU in the World

2. Security

Globalisation has made most states interdependent. In recognition of this, EU policy looks beyond traditional notions of secure borders, blurred as they are in the age of mass travel, migration, international crime and universal human rights.

The EU takes a multi-layered approach to security, reflecting its many actors and priorities and its focus on human rights and effective multi-lateralism. This is best summed up by the term: human security, which aims to build a world "free from fear and free from want". This means tackling the root causes of conflict and insecurity, aiding development while promoting human rights and good governance. The concept has been promoted at the highest levels, by among others Javier Solana and Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner.

EU interventions may use military force in the short-term, but aim in the long-term to stabilise hotspots. Based on this premise, EU forces are active in troubled areas around the world, from Kosovo to the Congo – keeping the peace, training police forces and (re)building democracy (see list of ESDP missions below).

Policy and Strategy

The EU first developed a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) under the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force in November 1993.

Following the Treaty of Amsterdam (1999), the EU appointed Javier Solana as foreign policy chief. His delicate role has been to improve the management and profile of the CFSP, which some EU nations see as eroding their sovereignty. The policy was further extended by the Treaty of Nice in February 2003, which cut the number of areas covered by national veto.

The European Security Strategy (ESS) remains Europe's first joint security strategy, approved in December 2003. This aims to make Europe a pro-active player on the world arena by bending the international system to democracy, justice, the rule of law and human rights (ie the bloc’s foundational principles).

Although its closest ally, the USA, is globally dominant in military terms, the ESS underlines how "no single nation is able to tackle today's complex challenges". These include terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflict, failed states, and organised crime.

Headline Goal 2010

Following the ESS, the EU extended its previously agreed security goals from the 1999 Helsinki Council. According to the new Headline Goal, “Member States will be able by 2010 to respond with rapid and decisive action applying a fully coherent approach to the whole spectrum of crisis management operations covered by the Treaty on European Union". More specifically, EU forces work toward five scenarios:

• Separation of parties by force
• Stabilisation, reconstruction and military advice to third countries
• Conflict prevention
• Evacuation operation
• Assistance to humanitarian operations.

The EU is taking on more commitments to match its ambitions: eg 'mopping up' after the Russia/Georgia war of 2008 while deterring pirates off the East African coast. In June 2009, the EU prolonged its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden for another year. There are also plans to extend the surveillance zone of the mission as far as the Seychelles, which has also suffered a rise in pirate attacks.

However, major questions remain about overlaps with NATO and a lack of troops from several EU nations in Afghanistan. This country is seen as a testing ground for peacekeeping and democracy in the global war against terrorism, so the USA wants the EU pull its relative weight. Closer to home, questions have also been raised about the EU's lack of an "exit strategy" in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

European Security and Defence Policy

The CFSP and ESS provide the framework for the 'European Security and Defence Policy' (ESDP), which has enabled the EU to perform crisis management, peacekeeping and peacemaking missions since 1999. It is run by national ambassadors sitting in a political and security committee and defence chiefs sitting in a military committee.

By May 2009, the EU was running 12 missions around the world, from Bosnia to Georgia, Palestine to Afghanistan, Congo to the Gulf of Aden:

2 military missions:

• EUFOR-Althea (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• EUNAVFOR Atalanta (Somalia/Gulf of Aden)

2 combined military/civilian missions:

• EUSEC RD Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• EU SSR (Guinea Bissau)

8 civilian missions:

• EU Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (EUPM)
• European Union rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX KOSOVO)
• European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia
• EU Police Mission in the Palestinian Territories (EUPOL COPPS)
• EU Border Assistance Mission at Rafah Crossing Point in the Palestinian Territories (EU BAM Rafah)
• EU Integrated Rule of Law Mission for Iraq (Eujust Lex)
• EU Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL AFGHANISTAN)
• EU Police Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (EUPOL RD CONGO)
  
  

Human Security

The EU considers human rights to be universal: both within Europe and throughout the world. Applying this to external relations, the EU has committed itself to the new paradigm of human security, in an effort to create a more just world.

To achieve these goals, the EU funds 1500 projects in 80 or so countries via the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. The EIDHR has a budget of some €140 million per annum (2007-2013) and is used to promote justice, the rule of law and democratisation, for example via election observation missions.

Underpinning this work, the EU plays an active role at international fora, such as the United Nations, Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Securing a UN moratorium on the death penalty in December 2007 was seen as a concrete success for EU policy.