Solana’s baby prepares for adolescence

Date: 06/11/03

The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is ten years old this month. Fraser Cameron, director of studies at the European Policy Centre, charts its successes - and failures - during a difficult "childhood"

THE CFSP could hardly have started at a worse moment. As Yugoslavia began its freefall into a vortex of violence it proved to be anything but "the hour of Europe".

Yet the EU learned from its mistakes in the Balkans and today the Union can be justly proud of its achievements in stabilizing the region and designing a road-map for eventual EU membership.

Apart from the horrible conflict in the Balkans, the early years of CFSP were dogged by disputes on structures (the Community versus the intergovernmental approach) and whether the EU should develop its own defence capabilities.

Some useful "joint actions" were taken. For example, the first stability pact helped reduce ethnic tensions in the Baltic states by providing assistance for language training and minority rights legislation.

Perhaps the biggest step forward in the past decade was taken at Amsterdam with the agreement to establish a high representative for CFSP, a title that is hardly ever used.

To the outside world Javier Solana is simply "the EU's foreign policy chief". Not all EU foreign ministers appreciate this description as, under the treaty, he is there "to assist the [rotating EU] presidency".

But no one can dispute that Solana has put a face to EU diplomacy and given the CFSP a certain credibility. He is the EU representative in the "Quartet" (the EU, US, Russia and United Nations), dealing with the Middle East, he has put out brush fires in Macedonia and provided the Union with its first security strategy paper.

His telephone number is well known in Washington.

The other face of EU diplomacy is Chris Patten, the globe-trotting commissioner for external affairs who dispenses financial largesse with varying dollops of political conditionality.

Despite occasional turf battles, Solana and Patten get on well together and have proved an effective partnership.

On the institutional front, the Council's new political and security committee has developed quickly into an influential body providing strategic guidance, political oversight and continuity.

A dramatic change from a decade ago is the number of men and women in uniform now working for the Council.

Progress has also been made on the defence front. Pushed by the UK and France, the EU is set to establish a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force, mainly for peacekeeping purposes.

The Union has already carried out successful police and military operations in Bosnia, Macedonia and Congo. Further operations are on the horizon. More needs to be done to improve EU defence capabilities and the new Armaments Agency should help in this regard.

Some critics argue that much more could have been achieved in CFSP with strengthened institutions and qualified majority voting (QMV).

This is doubtful. Foreign policy remains a sensitive area and member states are keen to retain some room for manoeuvre. Foreign ministries are also reluctant to negotiate themselves into oblivion.

There also remain significant differences of foreign policy culture, experiences and expectations within the member states and these differences are likely to be accentuated as a result of enlargement.

The very limited areas for using QMV in CFSP have hardly been used, mainly because there is a strong feeling that member states should not be pushed into a corner when vital national interests are at stake.

CFSP is a process, and the task of the institutions is to make it easier for member states to integrate their efforts and then to promote common policies more effectively.

CFSP thus approaches puberty after a difficult childhood with little sign that its parents have overly high ambitions for its future.

As Patten has recognised: "If the CFSP is to grow to maturity, it needs the nurture of both its parents, the member states and the Community institutions. And - as any psychologist will tell you - the child is more likely to be happy and healthy if those parents love one another."

The proposals on the table at the intergovernmental conference, especially the planned new EU foreign minister, supported by a beefed-up network of EU delegations, should lead to a further strengthening of CFSP.

But, as was brutally evident in the Iraq crisis, at the end of the day CFSP depends on the political will of its member states. There are inevitable limitations in the conduct of foreign policy in a Union which is reluctant to grant the institutions the authority that Pascal Lamy enjoys in trade policy.

This means that in some important areas the EU will continue to find itself hamstrung, but these areas are becoming fewer as the member states come to accept the advantages of working together.

Overall, the CFSP has survived a baptism of fire and taken its first steps in a difficult environment.

Its adolescent years will be decisive in determining whether it becomes a healthy adult.

The European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy was ten years old in November 2003. In this article, the author, Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre, charts the CFSP's successes and failures.