The European Union

Abstract

One of the difficulties encountered by EU foreign policy can be traced back to the fact that it was defined and implemented in a constantly changing strategic environment. The EU common foreign and security policy (CFSP) was defined in the early 1990s in the Maastricht treaty, in a post-Cold War context whose characteristics were very different from those that prevail today. A few years later, the European security and defence policy (ESDP) was framed in the midst and aftermath of the Kosovo crisis, at a time when crisis management was seen as the core activity of any European security actor. The events of 9/11 and the subsequent US response altered the security environment in different ways and directly challenged the emerging and hesitating EU security policy. This led to the European security strategy (ESS) of December 2003 that, while drawing on these fundamental changes and constraints, synthesized EU strategic thinking about threats and threat management. By doing so, the EU positioned itself as a security