The Common Foreign and Security Policy, or CFSP, was established as the second of the three pillars of the European Union in the
Maastricht treaty of 1992, and further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1999. It superseded the European
Political Cooperation.
The CFSP sees NATO responsible for territorial defence of Europe and "peace-making" while since
1999 the European Union is responsible for implementation missions; i.e. peace-keeping, policing of treaties etc.
Objectives
According to the Treaty on European Union, Article 11, the European Union defines and implements a common foreign and security
policy covering all areas of foreign and security policy, the objectives of which shall be:
- to safeguard the common values, fundamental interests, independence and integrity of the Union in conformity with the principles of the United Nations
Charter;
- to strengthen the security of the Union in all ways;
- to preserve peace and strengthen international security, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter, as
well as the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and the objectives of the
Paris Charter, including those on external borders;
- to promote international cooperation;
- to develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of
law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Elements
The European Council defines the principles and general guidelines for the CFSP as
well as common strategies to be implemented by the EU. On the basis of those guidelines the Council of Ministers adopts joint actions or common positions.
- Joint actions address specific situations where operation action by the EU is considered necessary and lay down the
objectives, scope and means to be made available to the EU. They commit the member states.
- Common positions on the other hand, define the approach that the EU takes on a certain matter of geographical or
thematic nature, and define in the abstract the general guidelines that the national policies of Member states must conform
to.
The treaties indicate that the function of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security
Policy is exercised by the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, who assists the country holding the Presidency of the European Union in matters coming within the scope of
the CFSP. When appropriate he conducts political dialogue with third parties, acting on behalf of the Council of Ministers, at
the Request of the Presidency. He also coordinates the work of the European Union Special Representatives. The current High Representative for the
CFSP is Javier Solana.
Since the Cologne European Council in 1999,
the European Security and Defence Policy (or ESDP) has become a
significant part of the CFSP.
Bodies of the European Union set up within the CFSP context include the following:
European Security and Defence Policy
The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is considered a
major element of the CFSP. The ESDP was initiated by provisions of the Treaty of
Amsterdam which stipulated the progressive framing of a common security and defence policy that could deal with
humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in
crisis management, including peacemaking. These are the so-called Petersberg tasks. These tasks are included into the Treaty of the European Union since 1997
Treaty of Amsterdam under Article 17.2.
The ESDP is facilitated by three separate institutions that shall provide a certain degree of continuity in the strictly
intergovernmental field of CFSP. These three institutions are the Political
and Security Committee (PSC), the European Union Military
Committee (EUMC), and the European Union Military Staff (EUMS). All
three institutions were established in the Intergovernmental Conference of Cologne in June 1999. Next to the respective
Operational Headquarters, these institutions will, among other tasks, be responsible to handle the daily business of every
European Battlegroup.
The European Battlegroup Concept in turn was drafted in late 2003 on a British-French summit meeting and was instantly
endorsed by Germany. The Battlegroup Concept was submitted to the PSC and was subsequently presented as a joint initiative of the
EU-3 (France, Germany, United Kingdom).
Political and Security Committee
The Political and Security Committee (PSC or "COPS" from its French acronym) first established as an interim body in 2000 is
described by the Nice European Council Conclusions as the "linchpin" of the European Security and Defence Policy and the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
Its responsibilities include the drafting of opinions for the General Affairs and External Relations Council which is one of the
configurations of the Council of the European Union, and exercising
"political control and strategic direction" of EU crisis-management operations. The committee is a standing body and is composed
of national representatives of "senior / ambassadorial level" and meets at least twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) in Brussels.
It is chaired by the member state that holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Past and future
The CFSP can be considered the outgrowth and replacement of the European
Political Cooperation which had been formally established in the Single European
Act (in effect since 1987), and informally introduced already from 1970 in response to the Davignon report. In the 1950s an even earlier attempt at political cooperation through the
European Political Community had failed to be launched.
According to the European Constitution that has not
been ratified yet, the pillar structure would have been abandoned: this means that the functions currently considered part of the
CFSP will be further incorporated into the functions of the rest of the Union. It would not however be a true merging the
pillars, as CFSP competences are still mentioned separately from the other EU competences in Article I-12. As part of merging the
EC and EU treaties, among other things, the post of the High Representative of the CFSP will be merged with the post of the
Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, creating the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs who will be at the
same time Vice-President of the Commission.
As part of the simplification of jargon in the treaties, "common positions" and "joint actions" will be both renamed into
"decisions". Whether this would truly be a simplification can be questioned, as the Draft Constitutional Treaty does maintain the
substance of these instruments, and consequently it would become more difficult to quickly recognise the character of the
instrument.
Timeline
Evolution of the Structures of European Union
See also
References
European foreign policy - from rhetoric to reality ? by Dieter Mahncke (ed.), Peter Lang, November 3 2004 - ISBN 90-5201-247-4
External links
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