The European Parliament and foreign and security policy The 1991 Pöttering report

Summary:

The European Parliament has, for a long time, demanded a more integrated and purposeful European foreign, security, and defence policy. It has also argued for an enhanced role for itself in this policy field. With the European Union facing multiple external challenges, it is timely to explore Parliament's long-standing demands for a more robust collective approach to issues such as defence and arms procurement. In June 1991, the European Parliament adopted the Political Affairs Committee report on 'The outlook for a European security policy: The significance of a European security policy and its implications for European Political Union'. The resolution endorsing the report represented Parliament's only statement on foreign and security policy during the intergovernmental conferences that, inter alia, led to the creation of the common foreign and security policy in the Maastricht Treaty. This briefing examines the report's proposals and discusses the political strategy employed by the rapporteur, Hans-Gert Pöttering. It explores the disagreements in Parliament over the future common foreign and security policy. The briefing shows that, while the report was unsuccessful in changing the intergovernmental character of European foreign and security policy in the short term, it nevertheless impacted the EU's foreign policy priorities, most notably through its proposals on disarmament policy. It also helped create a longer-term trajectory for the growing institutionalisation of and common action in foreign, security, and defence policy.

This briefing is part of the European Parliament History Series.

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