The Contribution of the Security Policy to the Coherence of the European Union’s External Action

AuthorLuca Paladini
PositionDottorando nell’Università degli studi di Bologna
Pages111-142

    This is the updated version of the contribution written for the seminar L’action exterieure de l’Union europeenne: quelle coherence?, held in Brussels on December 8-9 2006, within the framework of the international research project “Les principes innovateurs de la Constitution européenne”, financed by the European Commission (Action Jean Monnet) and realized by the University of Bologna, the IEE-Université Libre de Bruxelles and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. A special thanks to Mr. Stephen Curzon, PhD student at the University of Bologna, for his precious linguistic advice.

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@1. Introduction

1. When talking about the coherence of the European Union’s external action, attention must be paid to the Security Policy, i.e. the part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy in which interventions, aimed at dealing with international crises, are undertaken outside the borders of the Union.

The Security Policy is relatively young, its institutional developments started with the Cologne European Council of 1999, but it boasts important results. Indeed, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy stated that “after the single currency, it is in this dimension that the Union hasPage 112 made the most rapid and spectacular progress over the last 5 years”1. Such progress can also be noted in the extensive practice intervened so far, where a tendency to reach coherence on different levels can be noticed. First of all, within single interventions, between military and civilian aspects. Secondly, in crisis-management, through the co-ordination of several interventions focused on the same country or area. Thirdly, with regard to the co-ordination of crisis-management interventions, via actions carried out by the EU within the first and the third pillar. Finally, in the co-ordination of the Security Policy with peace-keeping activities carried out by other international organizations.

That being said, the present contribution will be structured in three parts. The first will focus on aspects of discipline related to the coherence of the EU’s external action and the Security Policy, including the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Constitutional Treaty (CTEU). The second part will present the practice related to Security Policy, highlighting its essential points, successful elements, and the issues that have emerged from the management of the interventions. Finally, the third part will be dedicated to the aspects of coordination that “stand out” in the implementation of the Security Policy, in order to stress the contribution of crisis-management to the coherence of the EU’s external actions.

A final explanation of terminology is due. “Peace-missions” include all Security Policy interventions. It is a concise expression that is considered adequate to cover all the possibilities of intervention offered by the Security Policy and stress crisis management ethos. At the end of the day each intervention, with or without arms, based on action or observation, has the final aim of peace-making or keeping. Nonetheless, the differences among the various types of missions will be considered where needed.

@2. The coherence of external action in the Treaty on European Union and in the Constitutional Treaty

2. Both the Treaty on European Union and the Constitutional Treaty express the need to reach coherence of the EU’s external action.

Indeed, Article 3 TEU imposes that the Union reach global coherence in the context of its external relations, security, economic and development policies. In order to do so, it states that the Council and the Commission, in fulfilling their competences, must co-operate between each other. Moreover, Article 13 gives the Council the duty of ensuring the unity, coherence and effectiveness of EU action within the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It is clear that the activities carried out within the Security Policy have to be included in the coordination aimed at guaranteeing the coherence of the EU’s external action.

Articles III-115 and III-292 CTEU have the same effect. According to Article III-115 CTEU the Union assures coherence between the various policiesPage 113 and the actions carried out and, more specifically, Article III-292, last paragraph, states that coherence is ensured between its external actions and other policies. The Council and the Commission, assisted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, co-operate in ensuring such coherence. Therefore it will also be necessary to coordinate the peace-missions carried out within the Common Security and Defence Policy with other policies.

So, Articles III-115 and III-292 CTEU reiterate the duties laid down by Article 3 TEU, the main difference being the added role of the Minister for Foreign Affairs2, whose “co-belonging” to the Council and the Commission makes him/her le symbole central of the coherence of external action3. It must also be noticed that – and this is editorial news – a further element of guarantee of external coherence of the Union’s action is constituted by the fact that all external policies are united in Title V CTEU.

@3. The current discipline of Security Policy

3. The Security Policy is based on Articles 2 and 11 and, more specifically, on Article 17 TEU. Article 2 TEU includes, among the general objectives of the Union, the assertion of its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a Common Foreign and Security Policy. Article 11 TEU, dedicated to the objectives of this policy, includes “the strengthening of the security of the Union in all ways and the preservation of peace and strengthening of international security”. Finally, Article 17 TEU allows for the implementation of humanitarian and rescue tasks, peace-keeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peace-making. Although this competence can be exercised by the Union via the single institutional framework of Article 3 TEU, nothing else is said about the implementation of the Security Policy.

In order to realize this policy an organizational structure was developed, by the Cologne European Council of 19994, and the necessary capabilities to deal with international crises have been acquired. This occurred via the developmentPage 114 of an autonomous capacity of civilian and military intervention and by guaranteeing access to the logistic and military Atlantic assets, necessary for the realization of “hard” military intervention, through a partnership with NATO5. Although the developmental phase of the Security Policy was carried out between 1999 and 2002, at the end of 2001 the Laeken European Council declared, with some advance, that the Union was able to conduct crisis-management operations6.

Subsequently, other acts intervened to complete the Security Policy framework. With the action-plan against terrorism dated September 21 2001, approved by the Brussels Extraordinary European Council on September 20 2001, and with the “Declaration by the European Council on the contribution of the CFSP, including the ESDP, to the fight against terrorism” of the Seville European Council on June 21 and 22 2002, intervention for crisis management was also given the task of contributing to the fight against terrorism7. Moreover, the financial framework described by Article 28 TEU, clearly applicable to the Security Policy, has been integrated by a Council decision which instituted a financing mechanism for military operations8, in order to make the UnionPage 115 acquire “the flexible capacity for managing the financing of common costs of military operations of any scale, complexity and urgency”9.

The different positions adopted by certain Member States completes the legal framework of the Security Policy. The involvement of Denmark, based on protocol Annex 5 of TEU, excludes its participation “in the elaboration and in the implementation of decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications”, with the consequence that it “shall not participate in their adoption” and that it “shall not be obliged to contribute to the financing of operational expenditure arising from such measures”. Regarding the neutral status of other EU Members, the second pillar offers some guarantees for their positions. The first is in Article 17, where “The policy of the Union in accordance with this Article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States”. This does not only include their participation in international organizations with defensive aims – for example, NATO – but also the adoption of a neutral position. The second is given by the positive abstention foreseen by Article 23 TEU, that allows neutral countries to free themselves from the execution and the financing of a decision related to an operation they are not intended to participate in.

@4. The Security Policy in the Constitutional Treaty

4. Some Constitutional Treaty norms indicate that one of the objectives of the European Union is to contribute to peace-keeping and international security. Article I-3 TCEU inserts this amongst the general aims of the Union, whilst Article III-292 places it amongst the specific aims of its external action.

In order to reach this goal, Article I-41 foresees that the Union can carry out missions, Article III-309 summarises these in a detailed list – very illustrative –, and that these include joint disarmament operations, humanitarian and rescue tasks, military advice and assistance tasks, conflict prevention and peace-keeping tasks, tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peace-making and post-conflict stabilization.

These missions can contribute to combating terrorism10 and are realized through capabilities offered to the Member States11, although their realization can be entrusted to groups of Member States according to the procedures foreseen12. Denmark, according to current regulations, is again...

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