Exit strategies: what’s in a name?

The December 2013 European Council identified ‘increasing the effectiveness, visibility and impact of CSDP’ as a priority. Ensuring adequate follow-up of CSDP missions through other EU instruments and/or external partners constitutes a key component in ensuring the long-term sustainability of peace-building actions.

The imminent adjustments to the mandate of EUPOL Afghanistan, as a result of US withdrawal plans, highlight the challenges facing the EU in this domain, as do other missions – such as EUFOR RCA – the operation launched in Central African Republic (CAR) earlier in 2014 – where the handing over of responsibilities to external partners was an explicit goal from the outset. Conceptually, the adoption of the ‘comprehensive approach’ as a guiding paradigm re-opens the discussion over CSDP and how it fits into the broader EU toolbox, which has resurfaced in the context of institutional developments over the past five years.

Brief by Eva Gross.