Page 19 - The European Union and the War on Ukraine

What is the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the
European Union?

In December 1998, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and
the French President, Jacques Chirac, signed an agreement at St. Malo.
The St. Malo Declaration stated that the European Union “must have
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the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military
forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in
order to respond to international crises.” The declaration was a response
to the armed conflict in Kosovo in the late 1990s as the international

community failed to intervene and stop that conflict.
Following the St. Malo summit, the European Council met on
December 11-12, 1998 in Vienna and welcomed the Franco-British

Declaration. The declaration paved the political path for EU
governments to launch the European Security and Defence Policy
(ESDP) at the Cologne European Council summit in June 1999. In 2003,
the EU deployed its first missions under the policy.

The Treaty of Lisbon of 2009 (which amended the Treaty on
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European Union [TEU]) set the overall framework for today’s CSDP .
Innovations in the Treaty of Lisbon have improved the political
coherence of the CSDP. The High Representative of the CFSP, who also

acts as Vice-President of the European Commission, occupies the
central institutional role, heading the European External Action Service

21 https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2008/3/31/f3cd16fb-fc37-4d52-936f-
c8e9bc80f24f/publishable_en.pdf
22 With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU’s European Security and
Defence Policy (ESDP) was transformed into the Common Security and Defence
Policy (CSDP).

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