What are the foreign policies of the EU?

Decisive diplomacy

The EU provides technical assistance at the Ukraine/Moldova border. The EU is a key player in international issues ranging from global warming to the conflict in the Middle East. The basis for the EU’s common foreign and security policy (CFSP) remains ‘soft’ power: the use of diplomacy - backed where necessary by trade, aid and peacekeepers - to resolve conflicts and bring about international understanding.

The EU has sent peacekeeping missions to several of the world’s trouble spots. In August 2008, the EU brokered a ceasefire to end fighting between Georgia and Russia and deployed EU observers to monitor the situation. It provided humanitarian aid to people displaced by the fighting and organised an international donor conference for Georgia.

The EU also has a leading role in the Balkans, where it is funding assistance projects in seven countries to help them build stable societies. In Kosovo, the EU deployed a 1 900-strong justice and police force in December 2008 to help ensure law and order.

The means to intervene

To give its diplomacy more clout and visibility, the Union created the post of High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, who coordinates between EU countries to shape and carry out foreign policy. The High Representative is assisted by a political and military staff.

The EU has no standing army. Instead it relies on ad hoc forces contributed by EU countries for peacekeeping, crisis management and humanitarian missions. In order to respond quickly, the EU has established battlegroups of about 1 500 forces each. Two battlegroups are on standby at any given time.

The principles behind these activities are known as the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

Protection on the ground

The first EU military missions were in the Balkans. The EU assumed command of the military stabilisation force in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2005. Other short-term missions followed in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In May 2007, the EU sent a police mission on a three-year assignment to Afghanistan, and in early 2008, an EU military force of more than 3 000 was stationed in border areas of Chad and the Central African Republic to protect refugees displaced by fighting in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan.

In December 2008, the EU launched its first maritime operation. Its mission is to protect ships from pirates along the Somali coast, particularly ships delivering food aid to Somalia.

A difficult challenge

The principle of a common foreign and security policy (CFSP) was formalised in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. EU countries have always recognised the need to act together in foreign policy and defence matters. But this has proved hard to achieve. A timid start was made in 1970 through a process called European Political Cooperation, whereby EU countries tried to coordinate their positions on foreign policy issues within the United Nations and other international bodies. But on particularly sensitive issues, or where individual EU countries had special interests, no single voice could be found because decisions had to be unanimous.

The emergence of a new p - ostcommunist world order and the rise of international terrorism pushed EU countries to redouble their efforts to speak as one on world affairs.

Governments in charge

Foreign and security policy is one area where essential authority remains with EU governments, although the European Commission and, to a lesser extent the European Parliament, are associated with the process. Key decisions are taken by unanimous vote.

Aware of this constraint, the Union has introduced more flexible voting procedures on CFSP decisions by allowing individual governments to abstain, or by using majority voting, or by allowing a majority of countries to act on their own; but unanimity is still required on decisions with military or defence implications.

References

Europa - Gateway to the European Union - Foreign and Security Policy