Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

Eduardo Serra Rexach
Lieutenant Colonel Villalba goes on to list the instruments of the
Common Security and Defence Policy which, as stated, has replaced the
ESDP:
• Permanent Structured Cooperation (PSC): this is a significant novelty
introduced by the new Lisbon Treaty and may be established by
Member States whose military capabilities fulfil higher criteria and
which have made binding commitments with one another to conduct
more demanding missions.
• Enhanced Cooperation: the treaty provides that states wishing to
establish enhanced cooperation may make use of the Union’s institutions.
I believe it is important to underline that these instruments could lead
to a two-speed Europe in security and defence matters; this underlines
the difficulty of ensuring operability in different fields with an EU of twentyseven.
• Entrustment of tasks to a group of states: the Treaty of Lisbon establishes
that the Council may entrust the implementation of a task to
a group of Member States who are willing and have the necessary
capabilities.
• The Treaty of Lisbon also broadens the «Petersberg tasks» set out
in the Treaty of Amsterdam; notably, all these types of tasks may
contribute to combating terrorism.
• Another instrument which is particularly interesting is the establishment
of mechanisms for the rapid financing of CSDP missions, as
in the past the lack of such mechanisms has hindered these operations.
Specifically, the treaty establishes, in addition to rapid access
to Union budgetary appropriations, a start-up fund consisting of
contributions from the Member States.
• Finally, I also find interesting, even though as yet this is only an
objective, to bolster the European Defence Agency which is intended
to progressively enhance military capabilities, strengthen the
defence industrial and technological base and participate in defining
a European policy on capabilities and armaments.
• The paper analyses the situation of transition in which it has fallen
to Spain to hold the presidency and the priority objectives which
underline Spain’s high degree of commitment to the EU.
Naturally the overriding aim is to improve the levels of security in
the European Union. National Defence Directive 1/2008 stresses that
«[Spanish] national security is intrinsically and indissolubly tied to the
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