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24/06/2010

Available the new Strategy Paper num. 145

The Treaty of Lisbon introduces substantial changes in both the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the new Common Security and Defence Policy, the CSDP. The most substantial is without a doubt the deep institutional overhaul which has brought together in the same person three competences previously shared between the same number of authorities. From now on the High Representative will be in charge of the CFSP and the CSDP, having at her disposal the resources of the Commission (the institution of which she is Vice-President) and the opportunity to bring to bear in decision making the political influence accorded by her role as President of the Foreign Affairs Council. For the first time since its founding, the Union is in a position to define and implement a genuine external policy.

Aside from a deep institutional change, the Treaty of Lisbon introduces major innovations in Security and Defence (the former ESDP) matters while according legal entity and the legitimacy of primary law to practices progressively established over these past seven years out of necessity. As stated earlier, the CFSP and above all the ESDP have been shaped day by day, in contact with the most immediate reality, which sometimes required improvised solutions and responses. Lisbon lends legitimacy to some of these practices. In addition, it introduces two legal commitments which translate an elementary solidarity of Union partners: in the face of aggression from a third state and in the event of a terrorist attack.

In this “Strategy Paper” the prestigious research scholar Félix Arteaga provides a critical and lucid overview of the development of the ESDP and the possible contradictions of the new Common Policy. Then, Professor Mariola Urrea Corres provides a rigorous and detailed legal examination of the instruments which the Treaty of Lisbon incorporates into the new Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

Like any policy, the Common Security and Defence Policy is a question of means. In this case, there are two sides to these means: capabilities and relations. In matters of capabilities, as could not be any other way according to the universal model of conflict management mentioned earlier, civilian capabilities are just as important as their military counterparts, and therefore each kind is treated separately in the Paper.

Civilian capabilities are addressed by Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo Sánchez of the Guardia Civil in an article in which, together with abundant, accurate information about the state of the matter, readers will find the “Brussels perspective” of an author accustomed to the day-to-day aspects of negotiation and monitoring civilian ESDP operations. Military capabilities are discussed by General José Enrique de Ayala. We would be hard pressed to find an author so profoundly convinced of the project to build a Europe of defence, in addition to so well versed in this field.

As stated earlier, the CSDP also entails relationships. And the first, the most significant, is the transatlantic link. Jordi Marsal explains the state of the matter, focusing on the field of security and defence in such a dense and multifaceted relationship. Lastly, Lieutenant Commander Francisco J. Ruiz González has written an essay about Russia and East Europe that combines passion and knowledge together with a well thought out personal view of one of the major geopolitical problems of the post-Cold War era: how to treat the former Soviet Union’s heir.

Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the new CDSP, the Common Security and Defence Policy, should set its sight on the future. The long and winding path followed by the Union’s latest institutional reform, that which is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty, has given rise to an odd sort of end-of-the-road feeling that is clearly perceptible in Brussels and in many capitals of Member States. December the first 2009 appears to have marked a date of arrival, of crossing the finishing line, not of embarking on a new stage in the journey. However, we cannot forget that the CSDP is a project in progress which needs to adapt imaginatively to changing circumstances, and that the treaty itself acknowledges that there is still ground to be covered.