1 COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY
1.4. CSDP – STATE OF AFFAIRS
by Jochen Rehrl
The Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union celebrated its 20 years of existence in 2018, following its political launch in 1998 at the informal European Council in Pörtschach, Austria. The first civilian missions and military operations were launched in 2003. Over time, the structures were streamlined by the establishment of the ‘Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability’ and the ‘Crisis Management and Planning Directorate’. The Treaty of Lisbon created the ‘European External Action Service’, which has housed the CSDP structures since then. The ‘EU Global Strategy’ gave new impetus and strategic guidance to the work of crisis prevention, intervention and stabilisation. At present we are facing major challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has hit EU Member States with unprecedented force, and its consequences, which will change economies and budgetary options for the coming decades.
GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY The pandemic is not, however, the only challenge. We will have to expect a global recession in the coming years, with ‘climate change’ another devastating situation if action is not taken immediately. In addition to these challenges, the old challenges have not gone away: terrorism, irregular migration, cyber-attacks, disinformation and hybrid threats. Moreover, the current rivalry between larger countries (e.g. the US vs China vs Russia) will increase as economic pressure fuels their differences and frictions. Overall, global uncertainty has never been higher than at present.
EUISS 2020 / Daniel Fiott
CSDP – THE ROCK IN THE SURF The Common Security and Defence Policy is based on European lessons and experience derived from the disintegration of Yugoslavia (1991 –
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