A debate on the European security strategy, imperative according to the Egmont Institute

(BRUSSELS2) Jo Coelmont, a retired general and officiating at the Egmont Institute, is setting the stage by calling for a review of the European security strategy. The crisis in Libya has shown this: a limited number of States have taken the lead. But the Union was invisible. (…)” « The strength of a strategy is (precisely) that it unifies. Without it, there are only blind people. (...) It is not enough to say how we act, we must also specify the why, and then the how to do it, when and with what tools. The interest of this document is to propose the method. He rejects the formula of the Intergovernmental Conference or the Convention cannot work because parts of this strategy are already incorporated in the Treaties. " We can adopt the Solana formula » believes J. Coelmont. " But it now seems overtaken by the need to have a broader objective, including both internal and external security.. He sees this strategy written more by a “ triumvirate » : President of the European Council, President of the European Commission and High Representative, together with the European Parliament. The question is not only to approve a common document. The key is " to have collective action and ownership ».

Comment: the idea is interesting. Personally I will go further in the method. By adapting the Community method. A joint Commission-High Representative document, submitted to the European Parliament and endorsed by the European Council. Because the whole problem of the regional strategies adopted so far (Horn of Africa, Sahel). On the one hand, they are not preceded by a general document. On the other hand, they have never really been discussed in the European sphere except by those who defined them.

Download : An EU Security Strategy: an attractive narrative (Security Policy Brief 34) or in the B2 Docs