7 COOPERATION AND COLLABORATION
7.4. THE SECURITY AND DEVELOPMENT NEXUS
European Union/ECHO, Mallika Panorat
by Clément Boutillier
To improve the effectiveness and the impact of EU development policy, the security and development nexus provides added value compared to traditional development approaches by taking into account the specificities of working in fragile and conflict-affected states.
The security and development nexus – peace is also often added into the equation – has been defined and referred to in a large number of Commission communications, Council conclusions and other policy documents. The EU Security Strategy 2003 stressed that security is a precondition for development and that, in turn, develop ment is a powerful tool to encourage reform in partner countries. In 2003, Europe had started to face new threats that were ‘more diverse, less
visible and less predictable’, combining terrorism, regional conflicts, weak state governance and organised crime outside its borders, including in many countries supported by the EU’s development policy. The 2006 European Consensus on Development defined the security and development nexus as follows: ‘without peace and security, development and poverty eradication are not possible, and without development and poverty eradication no sustainable peace will occur’.1
1 European Consensus on Development, 2006, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ. do?uri=OJ%3AC%3A2006%3A046%3A0001%3A0019%3AEN%3APDF, last accessed on 10 December 2016.
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