CIAO DATE: 03/05

EU Security and Defence Policy: The first five years (1999-2004)

Nicole Gnesotto, Editor

European Union Institute for Security Studies

August 2004

Summary

Five years after its ESDP was launched, the Union can boast really spectacular results: the legitimacy of its military powers is now solidly anchored in the Treaties. Its structures for taking decisions and conducting operations are now permanent and complete: Political Committee, Military Staff, Planning Unit, Armaments Agency, Military Committee, Situation Centre, etc., in all nearly 200 staff in the service of the ESDP. It has defined a European Security Strategy by consensus among the 25 member states, even though the very idea of a specifically European concept of security was still, five years ago, utterly taboo. The support and the expectations of European public opinion with regard to a common defence policy are constantly gaining ground. Above all, whereas there was no common defence policy at the time of the Kosovo crisis, the Union is now in charge of several military and police operations in the Balkans, not to mention the success of its first external military operation, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in spring 2003.

Full text (PDF, 298 pages, 1.22 Mb)

Table of Contents

Preface, Javier Solana

Introduction, Nicole Gnesotto

Part I: Five Years of ESDP (1999-2004): an assessment

1. Jean-Yves Haine  An historical perspective

2. Antonio Missiroli  ESDP—How it works

3. Martin Ortega  Beyond Petersberg: missions for the EU military forces

4. Burkard Schmitt  European capabilities—how many divisions?

5. Gustav Lindstrom  On the ground: ESDP operations

6. Jean-Yves Haine  ESDP and NATO

7. Antonio Missiroli  Mind the steps: the Constitutional Treaty and beyond

Part II: Actors and witnesses

8. Martti Ahtisaari

9. Michel Barnier

10. Carl Bildt

11. Elmer Brok & Norbert Gresch

12. Roberto Cooper

13. Judy Dempsey

14. Lamberto Dini

15. Jean-Louis Gergorin & Jean Bétermier

16. Philip H. Gordon

17. Alberto Navarro

18. Ferdinando Riccardi

19. Alexander Rondos

20. Rainer Schuwirth

21. Theo Sommer

22. Laurent Zecchini

Annexes

Chronology

Bibliography

Abbreviations

About the Authors