In the conclusions of the EU Council on Monday 11 December, the EU foreign ministers underlined “the importance of civilian approaches to crisis management” and the “added value of civilian missions under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)”.
In its conclusions, the EU Council explains that civilian CSDP missions “constitute a unique political and operational tool enabling the EU to help host countries (...) address threats to their security, while contributing to the EU’s internal security ”. It welcomes the rapid establishment and launch of three new missions in 2023: in Armenia, Moldova and the Gulf of Guinea.
The EU Council calls on the EEAS to improve the modularity and scalability of civilian missions. It also calls for continued efforts to ensure the coherence of the civilian CSDP with other instruments and stresses the need to strengthen cooperation between civilian missions and Commission departments and instruments in all theatres.
Ministers welcome the efforts of Member States to develop and implement national implementation plans (NIPs) to operationalise the new Civilian CSDP Compact and to increase contributions, including secondments, to the civilian CSDP. They also welcome the first steps taken to enhance the effectiveness and adaptability of this CSDP, as well as the first step in setting up a civilian capability development process, which includes an annual civilian capability conference, the first of which should take place in the first half of 2024, and a capability generation process.
Finally, the EU Council invites the High Representative to organise an annual debate on the civilian CSDP within the Foreign Affairs Council.
See the EU Council’s conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/a3c (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)