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12 - Common Security and Defence Policy

Bart Van Vooren  and
Ramses A. Wessel
Bart Van Vooren
Affiliation:
ALTIUS, Brussels
Ramses A. Wessel
Affiliation:
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
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Summary

Central issues

  • For almost fifty years, security and defence cooperation was excluded from the EU and in fact enjoyed ‘taboo status’. Member States were hesitant to hand over powers in this sensitive area to the ‘supranational’ EC and many preferred to give priority to cooperation in NATO. Yet, since the beginning of the third millennium, CSDP has developed into a fully fledged policy, as part of the CFSP (see Chapter 11), but increasingly as a stand-alone policy field with its own rules, procedures and bodies.

  • This chapter will address decision-making in CSDP as well as the role of the institutions and the available legal instruments. We will also go back in time to trace the origins of CSDP, in order to explain its current nature. Over twenty-five missions have been established since the creation of CSDP, and in this chapter we will look at the different types of missions as well as at their (international) legal ramifications.

    • Introduction

    In the previous chapter we referred to the origins of the Union’s foreign, security and defence policy. As we have seen, during the 1950s and 1960s far-reaching proposals were tabled to establish a common defence policy with supranational features. These proposals were never accepted, and a security and defence policy developed partly as part of the CFSP and partly autonomously. Over the last decade, the EU has launched over twenty-five civilian missions and military operations on three continents deployed in response to crises, ranging from post-tsunami peace-building in Aceh, to protecting refugees in Chad, to fighting against piracy in and around Somalian waters. The CSDP has developed into a major policy area in EU external relations. Like CFSP, it is formed on the basis of specific rules and procedures, but at the same time we have witnessed a development from a largely intergovernmental policy area to a ‘Brussels-based’ cooperation in which EU preparatory organs play a leading role.

    Type
    Chapter
    Information
    EU External Relations Law
    Text, Cases and Materials
     , pp. 400 - 437
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    Print publication year: 2014

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