Towards efficient early action: The EU needs a regional focus and proactive tools to prevent and manage conflicts

Abstract:

The Lisbon Treaty and the European External Action Service provide the EU with an excellent framework for comprehensive and effective crisis prevention and crisis management work. They just need to be utilised to the full.

The security and development nexus can only be enhanced through long-term perspectives. Rather than renewing its general security strategy, the EU’s focus should be on preparing tailor-made and institutionally endorsed regional approaches and strategies, where the broad objectives would be operationalized into more concrete goals.

In conflict-prone regions, goal-setting should be carried out through full participation with the beneficiary countries and their civil societies. Dialogue and mediation are perfect tools for achieving reconciliation and stability, and need to be utilized at every stage of comprehensive crisis management and at different levels of society.

Comprehensive EU activities in the field of crisis prevention and crisis management should be duly evaluated, as only by looking at the bigger picture can lessons truly be learned and endorsed.