The militarily non-allied states in the foreign and security policy of the European Union: Solidarity ‘ma non troppo’

Abstract:

This article aims to address the adaptation of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union throughout the 1990s. This is done in the light of official positions adopted during the IGC 1996/97 leading up to the signing of the Amsterdam Treaty, and also within the context of the Cologne Summit of June 1999. This article argues that while those militarily non-allied states affected the progress of Maastricht's second pillar, they had no impact upon the prospective defence dimension, from which they had distanced themselves from the outset. This found justification in legally imposed as well as domestically motivated limitations. Derived from continued adherence to the principle of non-participation in military pacts and non-participation in wars, those limitations have precluded these states from adopting an all-encompassing approach towards the foreign and security policy of the EU. In the specific purview of the CFSP, this could be seen in their resistance towards the building up of a European common defence as well as in the endorsement of a limited mutual solidarity.