European Security and Defence Identity

European security and defence identity and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of European security and defence identity provided by the European Union Commission: The idea of developing a European defence identity has been prompted by two considerations:

• For some years now Europe has been faced with the emergence of several hotbeds of instability in the eastern half of the continent, such asBosnia and Herzegovina or Kosovo.

• The relative decline in the United States' European defence commitment has left a void which Europe has not succeeded in filling. The last few years have consequently served to emphasise the limitations of an alliance (NATO) which defines itself primarily in relation to an external threat. At the same time there is a growing realisation of the need for a political entity motivated by an awareness of shared interests to face up to the new security challenges in Europe.

Against this background, the NATO Council held in Brussels in January 1994 recognised the importance of defining a specifically European identity in relation to security and defence. The first steps towards this were taken at the NATO Council held in Berlin on 3 June 1996 with the development of the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTF), to which the ministers of the Alliance subscribed at the January 1994 summit as a means of using NATO's military capacity in operations led by the Western European Union (WEU) under its political control and strategic management. Since then, the European Union has set up its own permanent political and military structures for the political control and strategic management of crises. In December 2002, within the framework of the permanent arrangements for EU-NATO cooperation and consultation known as “Berlin Plus”, the Union and NATO signed a strategic partnership agreement on crisis management. Through this agreement, the Union will have access with immediate effect to NATO's logistical and planning resources, including information. The EU will therefore be able to use these resources to implement its own peace-keeping operations and to set up in 2003 a rapid reaction force that will eventually comprise 60 000 men.