From Mutual Assistance to Collective Security – Article 42(7) TEU: Orchestrating Our Response to New Threats

The European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) reports directly to the President of the European Commission and operates under his authority. It is composed of a professional staff of advisers, policy analysts and support staff with appropriate experience and track record, in order to provide professional and targeted policy advice to the President and the College.

EPSC provides strategic analysis and policy advice for the President on matters related to the policy priorities (as defined by the President in his political guidelines presented to the European Parliament on 15 July 2014), and outreach to decision-makers, think tanks and civil society at large.

The EPSC provides support to the President also on concrete initiatives, as well as policy advice of more long-term nature.

EPSC Strategic Notes are analytical papers on topics chosen by the President of the European Commission. They are produced by the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank.The EU’s very own collective defence clause, long deemed irrelevant, has come to life. This adds a new political dimension to security discussions in Europe, from the Baltics to Cyprus. It must now revitalise European political solidarity and make collective security the cornerstone of the EU’s adaptation to an increasingly threatening international landscape.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: EU mutual assistance is more than defence http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-mutual-assistance-is-more-than-defence/

ESO: Background information: Invoking the EU’s Mutual Assistance Clause. What it says, what it means http://www.europeansources.info/record/invoking-the-eus-mutual-assistance-clause-what-it-says-what-it-means/

ESO: Background information: Meeting: Foreign Affairs Council, 16-17 November 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/meeting-foreign-affairs-council-16-17-november-2015/

ESO: Background information: The EU’s mutual assistance clause: The first ever activation of article 42(7) TEU http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-eus-mutual-assistance-clause-the-first-ever-activation-of-article-427-teu/

ESO: Background information: The Unbearable Lightness of European Defense http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-unbearable-lightness-of-european-defense/

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