European Union procedures and resources for crisis management

Abstract

The European Union can draw on a broad range of instruments and capabilities for conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict reconstruction, but its institutional structure and limited approach to developing crisis management capabilities within the intergovernmental decision-making context of the European Security and Defence Policy mean that its response to crises is neither integrated nor coherent. EU military operations and the deployment of police and rule-of-law experts are institutionally and practically divorced from activities supported by the Commission in pre-, active and post-crises situations. This division presents serious obstacles to EU ambitions to become a capable, active and coherent actor in crisis management.

Notes

The Maastricht Treaty created the EU on a three-pillar structure: the first pillar is responsible for economic, monetary and social policies, including international economic policies and external development aid; the second pillar is responsible for foreign and security policy; and the third pillar is responsible for Justice and Home Affairs.

For a description of the community method and the intergovernmental method see Alexander Stubb, Helen Wallace and John Peterson, ‘The Policy-Making Process’, in Elizabeth Bomberg and Alexander Stubb (eds), The European Union: How Does it Work? Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.136–55.

Ramses A. Wessels, The European Union's Foreign and Security Policy, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999 (see section on ‘Specific Legal Basis of CFSP Decisions’); Elfriede Regelsberger and Wolfgang Wessels, ‘The CFSP Institutions and Procedures: A Third Way for the Second Pillar’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol.1, 1996, pp.29–54.

On the financial aspects of ESDP operations involving the deployment of military forces see Antonio Missiroli, Euros for ESDP: Financing EU Operations. Occasional Papers No.45, Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies, June 2003.

The decision-making procedures of the European Commission in relation to external relations are explained in detail in Neill Nugent, External Relations in the European Commission, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001, pp.297–322.

‘Comments by the services of the European Commission on the paper presented by the Secretary General/High Representative on a planning and mission support capability for EU civilian missions’, European Commission, internal document.

European Council, Nice, 7–9 Dec. 2000. Presidency Report on the European Security and Defence Policy, Annex VI.

• Ibid., Annex VI, III: ‘Arrangements during crisis periods’.

• Ibid.

‘European Defence: NATO/EU Consultation, Planning and Operations’, European Council, 15 Dec. 2003, accessed at http://ue.eu.int/en/summ.htm.

NATO, ‘Final Communiqué’, Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Berlin, 3 June 1996, NATO Press Communiqué M-NAC-1(96)63, accessed at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1996/p96-063e.htm.

The ‘Berlin Plus’ accord is comprised of four texts, agreed in close succession. The first is the agreement of 25 October by the European Council in Brussels on the participation of non-EU NATO states in ESDP operations (Council of the European Union, ‘Brussels European Council, 24 and 25 October 2002: Presidency Conclusions’, document 14702/02, Brussels, 26 Nov. 2002, Annex II: ‘ESDP implementation of Nice provisions on the involvement of the non-European allies’, accessed at http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/ec/72968.pdf.) The second was the Declaration of the Copenhagen Council Meeting on 12 December 2002, containing the principles of the Berlin Plus arrangements and their implementation. (European Council, ‘Presidency conclusions, Copenhagen European Council, 12–13 December 2002’, Annex II, ‘Declaration of the Council meeting in Copenhagen on 12 December 2002’ accessed at http://europa.eu.int/council/off/conclu/) The third was the EU–NATO declaration on ESDP. (NATO, ‘EU–NATO Declaration on ESDP’: Communiqué, Press release 2002 142, 15 Dec 2002, accessed at http://nato.int/docu/pr/2002/p02-142e.htm.) The final element of the Berlin Plus accords was the NATO–EU Security of Information Agreement that was reached and signed in Athens on 14 March 2003. For a list of relevant GAERC and NATO documents relating to the detailed implementation of Berlin Plus, see Renata Dwan and Zdzislaw Lachowski, ‘The Military and Security Dimensions of the European Union’, in SIPRI Yearbook 2003, Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, note 85, p.230.

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is located in Mons, Belgium.

European Council press release (see n.7 above).

Catriona Gourlay, ‘EU Operations Update: Past, Present and Future’, European Security Review, No.19, International Security Information Service, October 2003, accessed at www.isis-europe.org

Conference of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, ‘IGC 2003-Defence’, Document CIG 57/03, Brussels, 2 Dec 2003, accessed at http://ue.eu.int/igcpdf/en/03/cgoo/cg00057.en03.pdf.

Dana Spinant, ‘EU eyes controversial peace mission to strife-torn Moldova’, European Voice, 17–23 July 2003.

The Swedish Folke Bernadotte Academy will launch the first training course in which both civilian and military representatives will participate.

European Commission. ‘CARDS Assistance Programme to the Western Balkans Regional Strategy Paper 2002–2006', Brussels: EU Commission Directorate Western Balkans (adopted in October 2001), p.17. Accessed at http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/docs/cards/sp02_06.pdf

This police operation was originally carried out in the framework of the Western European Union (WEU). Since 2001 these activities fall within the framework of the EC Police Assistance Mission to Albania, which in turn forms part of the EC CARDS programme to support the participation of Albania in the Stabilization and Association Process.

‘Dr. Renata Dwan, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, made this observation in a presentation at a seminar on the issue of coherence and capabilities in the European Security Strategy, hosted by the Swedish Institute for International Affairs in Stockholm on 20 October 2003.’