III. The European Union

Chapter:

4. Euro-Atlantic security and institutions: rebalancing in the midst of global change

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2010

Author(s):

Alyson J.K. Bailes, Andrew Cottey

In a report to the European Council in December 2008 about the implementation of the 2003 European Security Strategy, the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana, wrote that ‘The European Union carries greater responsibilities than at any time in its history.’ ⁴¹ The three main factors he cited were the enlargement of the EU, which had ‘spread democracy and prosperity across our continent’ ; the commitments enshrined in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) towards non-member states in the east, south-east and south; and the EU’s interventions in crises and conflicts abroad using the instrument of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP, formerly known as the European Security and Defence Policy, ESDP), which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009.⁴² If Solana had been speaking of the totality of EU activities, not just the sphere of CFSP, he could also have cited the EU’s growing role in such non-military dimensions of security—at home and abroad—as financial and economic stability, energy, the management of climate change, public health, migration and border control, transport safety, and the combating of terrorism, crime, smuggling, human trafficking and proliferation as well as the promotion of human security through aid and good-governance policies.