{"id":47098,"date":"2024-04-22T16:20:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T15:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihedn.fr\/?p=47098"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:15:30","slug":"la-politique-europeenne-de-defense-un-chantier-toujours-en-cours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ihedn.fr\/en\/notre-selection\/la-politique-europeenne-de-defense-un-chantier-toujours-en-cours\/","title":{"rendered":"European defence policy: a work in progress"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week, the IHEDN is hosting a module in Paris on the 19th.e<\/sup> High-level course on the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), organised by the European Security and Defence College. This is an opportunity to take a closer look at the CSDP, an important but little-known tool for the general public, which is part of a long-standing desire to build a European defence.<\/p>

1948, 1949: these two years were fundamental to European defence as it exists today. On 17 April 1948, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France signed the Treaty of Brussels, founding Western Union (UO), which aimed to establish military, economic, social and cultural cooperation between these states. It also included a mutual defence clause. Less than a year later, on 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was born. Three quarters of a century later, the European Union's CSDP, a distant descendant of the UO, is still closely linked to NATO.<\/p>

These two entities were born in a tense context: the end of the Second World War, the start of the Cold War, and soon the Korean War... After the failure of the project to create a European army under NATO command within the framework of the European Defence Community (EDC) in 1954, the Atlantic Alliance appeared to be the preferred solution of the EU Member States for their common defence. This has not prevented them from developing common tools.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A CAPABILITIES, OPERATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s led the EU to significantly strengthen its defence capability. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union on the basis of three \"pillars\", including the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Within this framework, the Treaty of Nice in 2001 launched the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), which was succeeded by the CSDP following the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in 2007.<\/p>

Placed under the authority of the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, currently the Spaniard Josep Borrell, the CSDP represents a major step forward in the construction of a European defence. From 2016 onwards, it will be further consolidated when the European Council validates the Union's overall strategy<\/a>. Three areas have been identified for further development:<\/p>