New bearings for EU security and defence? 66 pages, pdf  Download Back

New bearings for EU security and defence?

Publisher: Euopean Union- Institute for Security Studies

Volume: 66 pages, pdf

Description:

Over the past twenty years the European Union has enhanced its role as a security and defence actor. The EU has proven its ability to deploy civilian and military missions and operations to its near and wider neighbourhoods. Since the early 2000s, the CSDP has evolved from a political concept on paper into more than thirty civilian and military deployments. Today, the CSDP can claim its own autonomous decision-making apparatus and nascent command and control (C2) facilities. While it is true that many EU missions and operations are conducted in relatively low-intensity environments, deployments are varied and tackle a range of tasks such as capacity building, military training, border monitoring and naval operations.

Since 2016, and beyond CSDP missions and operations, the Union has intensified work on a broader set of security and defence tools that include capability development and defence-industrial policy (2). For example, today the EU can finance and develop military capabilities to support the European defence industry. The EU is also investing in dual-use transport infrastructure to facilitate military mobility across Europe. What is more, the EU is generating the capacities required to counter hybrid threats such as the manipulation of the information environment, attacks and disturbances against critical infrastructure and election interference. Bridging its efforts between security and defence and justice and home affairs also allows the EU to address cross-border security concerns such a cyber-attacks and the instrumentalisation of irregular migration and borders.