Abstract
The European Union, as an area of unquestionable prosperity, on which the countries that make up it have been working since the 1950s, faces the constant challenge of combating threats to the security of its societies. In a changing world, these threats are constantly evolving. They were first summarised in the European Security Strategy and the list of threats was revised in Global Strategy published in 2016. The Union is therefore aware both of the processes of change in international relations and of the threats that this entails for the Union, its Member States and society. Does this awareness motivate Member States and EU authorities to consolidate their defence efforts? Are the measures to address the risks to the Union adequate to the degree of danger? Are the policies of the Union so developed as to maintain peace of mind in the face of threats? This article analyses the risks and attempts to answer these questions.
Highlights
The failure to use formally operational EU Battlegroups can be given: while the troops of most Member States take part in stabilisation operations overseas, they rarely do it under a common EU flag, and more often as NATO, UN or coalition forces
Defence policy has been spoken of in a Europe that has been uniting since the 1950s, i.e. before the today’s European Union was established, cooperation in this area has been slow
The British concept to station the European security on cooperation with the US appears to be much closer to most EU members, despite the US frustration with the attitude of its European allies, their disproportionate – according to the US – contribution to common security and insufficient funding for the defence sector
Summary
The European Union’s Security Conceptualisation vs. its Risk Prevention Capabilities. The European Union’s Global Strategy announced in June 2016 was focused on describing contemporary international relations, listing the threats to the Union, its Member States and society, and indicating the directions for the development of the EU’s security potential (The European..., 2016). When comparing the two EU security strategies, one has to observe that the world is changing and international relations are less stable than they were several years ago, most threats are the same. Despite this analogy, neither the Union nor the leading powers are better prepared to fight them than they were when the previous Union’s security strategy was created.
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