Odd Couple or Dynamic Duo? The EU and Strategy in Times of Crisis

Abstract: When the European Council in December 2007 mandated Solana to examine the implementation of the 2003 ESS ‘with a view to proposing elements on how to improve the implementation and, as appropriate, elements to complement it’, great expectations were raised, proof perhaps of the importance attached to the ESS. The resulting Implementation Report of December 2008 provides a concise overview of implementation, confirms the analysis of the threats and challenges and the choice for a holistic and multilateral approach, and ends with a firm call to action. But it offers little in terms of concrete recommendations, and as such represents a missed opportunity as well as an ad hoc occasion, as no deadline for the next assessment of the ESS has been decided.