Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

The Treaty of Lisbon and the common security and defence policy
– Decisions required for the implementation of operational actions of
the Union (article 28 TEU – Lisbon). These decisions correspond to
the joint actions of the TEU – Nice.
As for reciprocal reporting and consultations between Member States,
the latter shall consult one another within the European Council and the
Council on any matter of foreign and security policy of general interest,
giving shape to the so-called common approaches (article 32 TEU -
Lisbon).
PROGRESS OF THE ESDP FROM 1999 TO 2009
One of the CFSP instruments to have undergone the most development
in recent years is the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP),
which sprang from frustration at Europe’s inability to act on the ground
during the crisis of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and, in particular, the
Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict.
With the precedent of the Anglo-French summit of Saint Malo in
December 1998 at which the two countries decided to give impetus to the
ESDP, targets were set for the development of crisis-management military
capabilities at the Cologne European Council of December 1999, and for
civilian capabilities at the Feira European Council of June 2000.
The Nice European Council of December 2000 incorporated the crisismanagement
functions of the Western European Union (WEU) into the EU,
created permanent structures specialising in ESDP matters in the General
Secretariat of the Council and defined relations between the EU and third
countries in defence matters.
At the Laeken European Council in December 2001 the ESDP was
declared operational and at the Seville European Council in June 2002
the EU broadened the scope of the ESDP to include combating terrorism.
At the Copenhagen European Council in December 2002 it concluded an
agreement with NATO, known as «Berlin Plus», allowing the EU to make
use of NATO capabilities, planning bodies and command structures.
Javier Solana, the European Union’s High Representative for CFSP
during these ten years of ESDP, states that the Union was ahead of its
time in 1999. Solana points out that the comprehensive and multifunctional
nature of the EU’s approach to security was novel. The EU thus continues
to be the only organisation capable of drawing on a broad variety
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