The European Union and Peacekeeping

The practice of peacekeeping has been created in the aftermath of World War II and has been developing ever since. The United Nations were the first organization deploying peacekeeping missions, but throughout the years it has been adopted also by other international organizations such as the European Union, Nord Atlantic Treaty Organization, African Union, and others. Peacekeeping is an instrument created by United Nations where a third party intervenes to manage a conflict among communities and states, to establish peace and to help in the processes of the development. The first missions had to do only with monitoring and observing activities, but throughout the years the mandates evolved and contained more intricated duties attempting to tackle the root causes of conflicts. Even though the nature of missions changed, the three principles underpinning peacekeeping operations never disappeared: impartiality, consent of the parties and non-use of force are crucial for the existence and functioning of peacekeeping.

In this article we are going to briefly explore European Union’s work in the field.

In the context of the European Union, the agency in charge of deploying peacekeeping operations is the European Union External Action Services, which corresponds to the diplomatic body of the Union aiming at <<promoting peace, prosperity, security, and interests of the Europeans spread across the world>>. Thanks to the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Union can establish peacekeeping missions and to operate on the ground under the Common Security and Defense Policy, but it is important to note that it is only part of a larger approach to crisis management. Worth mentioning, also the cooperation with NATO thanks to the Berlin Plus agreement, which can be considered as a NATO-EU security agreement. The latter assures access to NATO planning capabilities for EU-led Crisis Management Operations (CMO) and availability of NATO assets and capabilities for EU-led CMO. This cooperation between the two organizations can be regarded as a win-win situation. On one hand, the European Union can rely on military assets without establishing a proper European Army. On the other, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO had to re-invent itself to avoid its dismantling, thus finding a new purpose such is still beneficial its existence. Overall, cooperation between two or more organizations can be considered advantageous for all the parties, even though coordination and agreements might be hard to achieve.

The European Union is currently conducting 18 different missions spread in Africa, Middle East. Western Balkans and Eastern Europe. These missions can be both military or civilian and have different objectives based on their nature. Seven military operations, both on land and on sea and coordinated by the Military Planning and Conduct Capability permanent structure (MPCC), are deployed to reform and train armies, assist in creating a safe and secure environment, fighting pirates and or disrupting networks of traffickers. On the other hand, eleven civilian missions work under the guidance of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability, that support countries in activities such as border management, conflict prevent, fight of organized crime and smuggling, reforming national security sectors and monitoring the judicial system and the rule of law.

Recent events concerning the Russian invasion in Ukraine boosted the importance of the efficiency of these missions to protect European citizens and values abroad and to tackle abrupt shifts in the geopolitical sphere. As a matter of fact, the European Union approved the Strategic Compass, a plan which reinforces both civilian and military missions by issuing more rapid and flexible response mechanism and by increasing the finances available for their activities. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict and its dynamics shook the international community, who realized that peace and security should not be taken for granted, thus readiness and preparedness to any event are top priorities.