EU’s Security Strategy

Abstract

The EU seeks to affirm itself as a major actor within the realm of international relations, trying to promote key democratic values throughout its network of diplomatic missions. Thus, EU’s foreign and internal policies are constructed as to commonly represent member states in global issues as a well-defined political entity of its own. It is through these lenses that we can observe the ways in which EU’s efforts, to remain a major global actor, are diminished because the entity lacks the force (self-reliant army) through which it could efficiently represent its military interests. The only military might, at EU’s disposal, being member state’s own troops, which can be deployed in emergency-related situations through the common security policy. As such, there are some foreign and defence ministers from the community block which are demanding, after the Afghanistan chaotic developments, an increased military independence for both the EU and its intervention forces. On a similar tone, Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, believes that it is the right time for EU to form its own military corps. Furthermore, overseeing the emerging security contexts, to which NATO responded by engaging into an ample transformation and adaptation process, we can underline some key developments, which showcase the need to revaluate EU’s military efforts, especially in terms of using its capabilities and capacities as a primordial source of credibility. As citizens’ security remains one of Brussels’ main objectives, and one of the primordial European institutions’ responsibilities, they have put forward and accepted, almost two decades ago, the European Security Strategy, which has established, for the first time, tangible goals, and objectives when it comes to protecting EU’s interests in terms of security and defence. It is this document which transforms the current approach across the continent, and its analysis can prove a starting ground for punctual optimizations to take place, to gain resilience in the face of alternative or emerging threats and risks.