HANDBOOK ON CSDP
8.1. CIVILIAN AND MILITARY CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT
by Klaus Schadenbauer
The Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy1 (EUGS) initiated a ‘renaissance’ of both civilian and military capability development in the EU. Based on substantial political momentum, and in a relatively short time (2016 – 2019) various implementation and action plans led to the re-activation of existing, and the design of new initiatives, processes and activities that are together aimed at increasing the quantity and quality of the capabilities available for the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This development is very likely to continue within the next few years, especially after the new EU Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen explicitly declared ‘security and defence’ to be one of the Commission’s top priorities:
‘…Europe also needs credible military capabilities and we have set up the building blocks of the European Defence Union. There is a European way to foreign and security policy where hard power is an important tool – but is never the only one. Hard power always comes with diplomacy and conflict prevention; with the work on reconciliation and reconstruction, which is something Europeans know well, because we have gone through this, here in Europe.’ 2 From a capability development point of view, the most remarkable event in this regard was the political agreement on a new Level of Ambition (LoA) as part of the Council conclusions on implementing the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) in the area of Security and Defence.3 This allowed civilian and military
1 European External Action Service: Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe. A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy. June 2016 2 Ursula von der Leyen, Keynote Speech at the World Economic Forum, Davos, 22 January 2020 3 Foreign Affairs Council conclusions, Brussels, 14 November 2016, (14149/16)
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