CFSP – Aims and Instruments

Aims

The EU’s CFSP aims to help maintain world peace. It promotes international security and works towards democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Article 24 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) states that “the Union’s competence in matters of common foreign and security policy shall cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions relating to the Union’s security.” Article 21 goes on to say that “the Union shall define and pursue common policies and actions, and shall work for a high degree of cooperation in all fields of international relations, (...)”. Paragraph 2 of Article 21 defines the aims of EU foreign-policy action.

These aims (for example safeguarding the EU’s values and fundamental interests, and consolidating and supporting democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the principles of international law) sketch out the basic principles according to which the EU Member States seek to shape their cooperation in all areas of foreign policy. These principles are deliberately broad – unlike those Treaty regulations on the communitarized field, which define the Commission’s powers in great detail. This is in line with the Member States’ basic approach. As the CFSP continues to require unanimity, the Member States wanted to avoid Treaty language which might be too constricting. The CFSP’s basic principles were further specified by the European Security Strategy, which was adopted in December 2003.

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Instruments

The EU Member States and the High Representative use a set of tools to react to crises, also at short notice. Up to the LT’s entry into force the Treaty on European Union distinguished between three instruments which as a rule required a unanimous Council decision: the Common Position (defining the Union’s approach, binding on the Member States, to a specific matter of a geographical or thematic nature), the Joint Action (a decision by the EU to take operational action) and the Common Strategy (a legal mechanism which tied the policy decisions of the member states more closely than before to a joint EU line; in practice only a few Common Strategies were ever adopted). The TEU combined these instruments, calling them all “decisions” and stated, in Article 25, that “The Union shall conduct the common foreign and security policy by: (a) defining the general guidelines; (b) adopting decisions defining: (i) actions to be undertaken by the Union; (ii) positions to be taken by the Union; (iii) arrangements for the implementation of the decisions referred to in points (i) and (ii) (...)”.

The EU regularly issues statements on current political developments (for example, condemning the imposition of the death penalty in a certain country or welcoming the peaceful conduct of parliamentary elections in another) which are politically binding on the Member States. Until 31 December 2009 the (rotating) Presidency published “Declarations on behalf of the EU”; since 1 January 2010 the High Representative has issued such declarations. The countries associated with the EU may align themselves with these Declarations, as well as with decisions, and are thus also directly bound by them.

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