The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy: Opportunities for a more Effective EU Response to Crisis-Affected Countries in Africa Patricia Magalhães Ferreira Terhi Lehtinen Justin Haccius The ECDPM would like to thank Council and Commission officials for their open and constructive contributions to this paper. February 2001 CONTENTS LIST OF ACRONYMS............................................................................................................................................ 4 SUMMARY............................................................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 9 PRESENTATION OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................................... 10 THE INSTITUTIONAL SETTING FOR THE COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY......... 11 COMMON AND FOREIGN SECURITY POLICY (CFSP) ............................................................................ 11 INSTITUTIONAL COMPETENCIES............................................................................................................................ 12 The Council and Member States ..................................................................................................................... 14 The Commission............................................................................................................................................... 14 The Presidency................................................................................................................................................. 15 High Representative for the CFSP.................................................................................................................. 15 Special envoys.................................................................................................................................................. 16 European Parliament (EP).............................................................................................................................. 16 DECISION-MAKING AND OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE CFSP ........................................................................... 16 Agenda setting ................................................................................................................................................. 16 Specific instruments......................................................................................................................................... 17 Monitoring of compliance ............................................................................................................................... 17 Financial aspects............................................................................................................................................. 18 LINKING THE CFSP WITH DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION..................................................................................... 19 Conflicts: new provisions in the ACP-EU Agreement.................................................................................... 19 The Europe-Africa Summit.............................................................................................................................. 20 Coordination of development policy in the framework of the CFSP ............................................................. 20 Member States’ foreign policy interests and development cooperation ........................................................ 21 POLITICAL INSTRUMENTS............................................................................................................................. 22 PROVISIONS OF THE COTONOU AGREEMENT........................................................................................................ 22 POSITIVE INSTRUMENTS........................................................................................................................................ 23 Conflict prevention .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Support for political transition........................................................................................................................ 23 Diplomatic instruments, political dialogue and political assistance .............................................................24 NEGATIVE INSTRUMENTS...................................................................................................................................... 25 KEY ISSUES ........................................................................................................................................................... 25 MILITARY INSTRUMENTS............................................................................................................................... 26 DECISION-MAKING................................................................................................................................................ 26 THE PETERSBERG TASKS....................................................................................................................................... 26 COOPERATION WITH NATO ................................................................................................................................. 27 COOPERATION WITH THE UN................................................................................................................................ 28 2 INSTRUMENTS ....................................................................................................................................................... 28 Security sector reform and arms limitation .................................................................................................... 28 Arms exports .................................................................................................................................................... 29 KEY ISSUES ........................................................................................................................................................... 30 CIVILIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND HUMANITARIAN AID ............................................................ 31 CIVILIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ 31 Decision-making.............................................................................................................................................. 31 Instruments for civilian crisis management.................................................................................................... 31 Goals and priority areas of action .................................................................................................................. 32 Funding: Rapid-Reaction Mechanism (RRM) ................................................................................................ 32 Key issues......................................................................................................................................................... 32 HUMANITARIAN AID ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Decision-making and coordination structures................................................................................................ 34 Evaluation of ECHO........................................................................................................................................ 34 Food aid and food security.............................................................................................................................. 35 Relief-Rehabilitation-Development linkage (RRD) ........................................................................................ 35 KEY ISSUES ........................................................................................................................................................... 35 CHALLENGES FOR AN EFFECTIVE EU RESPONSE TO CRISIS-AFFECTED COUNTRIES........... 37 IMPROVE THE IMPACT OF EU POLICY IN CRISIS-AFFECTED COUNTRIES ................................. 39 OVERVIEW OF CURRENT INSTRUMENTS FOR EU RESPONSE TO CRISIS SITUATIONS IN ACP COUNTRIES........................................................................................................................................................... 40 CONCLUDING REMARKS................................................................................................................................. 41 ANNEX 1. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COOPERATION AND THE CFSP............................................................................................................................................................... 43 ANNEX 2. THE PETERSBERG TASKS: OPERATIONAL CAPACITY..................................................... 44 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................................................... 45 3 List of Acronyms ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries ALA Asian and Latin American Countries CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy COPO Political