Posted in The European , 03/06/1911
Beyond all the features of the historical process we are witnessing in the Mediterranean, the riots have been a baptism of fire for the European External Action Service. As they are happening over the coming months, the analysis reaction has been the European Union may be an opportune time to review and contextualize the skills of diplomacy available to the fledgling community.
The first type of 'resources' of those who could use the EU are the military and operational in nature, whether to maintain a permanent troops, either to react before situations emergency or to perform ad hoc missions . The missions 'European' we know that the EU has been progressively introduced since the last 11 years are such ad hoc missions, designed to meet specific objectives, defined and temporary. EUFOR Althea mission in Bosnia and more recently Atalanta against piracy in the Horn of Africa are such missions. These are missions with months of gestation and a delicate and complex approval process.
As permanent resources, these have traditionally been nonexistent at the community level. The only instrument that has emerged in recent 4 years is a shift system whereby a Battlegroup of only 1,500 soldiers is always on alert. The use of this little command is nonetheless a highly unlikely scenario because it requires a unanimous decision, a United Nations resolution ... and its legal statutes prevent it from acting on missions that are not markedly humanitarian purposes. The lack of permanent resources and a context of budget crisis, is precisely why the strategy of pooling and sharing promoted in recent months by defense ministers. The objective is to discuss the possibility of sharing certain military resources in Europe, in order to achieve "tangible achievements" in late 2011.
Finally, we have the operational resources for crisis situations, which require a rapid response, flexible and powerful. The experience, however, and some recent examples as repatriation of EU citizens in Libya, have shown enough that the EU, rather than organize and propose a plan of operations is limited to exchange information between different national bodies. In this sense, the control and responsibility are in the same hands as always: crisis management is the responsibility of States.
capabilities the Union at international level are not defined only as a result of their military resources and operational, but also by the rules that must at foreign policy. Article 24 of the Treaty on European Union (Lisbon Treaty #) character and tell us 'special' with which it was decided to CFSP in Europe, "referred to specific procedures and regulations." The power of guidance, planning and decision rests solely with the Council (member states) and any decision that relates to issues of defense and military must be endorsed unanimously (Art.31, TEU). Unlike of other Community policies, where the Commission and European Parliament are used to playing a key role in the discovery process and legislation, in the case of the CFSP these two institutions should be limited to questions and recommendations (art.36 TUE ). As the High Representative, is responsible for "implementing and directing" the CFSP on behalf of the Council (Art. 26 and 27 TEU ). In other words, any initiative in foreign policy is completely determined by the will of 27 states and the leadership of the High Representative. Natural system that also makes those decisions that require flexibility, adaptation and often the odd disagreement.
The last group of resources that should be mentioned when talking about the capabilities of the EU foreign policy is the administrative and budgetary matters. In just over two years since Ashton's appointment as High Representative, the European External Action Service has been taking shape in terms of its administrative organization . almost all charges have been already allocated (a task that was initially feared would paralyze the process) and the bulk of officials who should be transferred to work in the new European Foreign Service have been redirected. This is compounded acquisition (not without many setbacks) of a building 'own' for SEAE ( The Capital ), where you will coordinate, prioritize and bring together all the activity outside the Union. To this are being published everyday items, such as approval of a own logo or the conversion of former offices in centers with real operational capacity. Faced with the progress
administration, budgetary capacities are much more varied. The budget of the Union in 2011 to develop all the activities included in paragraph The European Union global actor is of 7,100 million euros. A total equivalent to only 6.2% of total EU budget, which represents a decrease of 7.1% over the total for that section in 2010. Although in theory be one of the pillars of the European Union to come (or so we wanted to stress during and after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty), spending on foreign policy is still infinitely less than the administrative expenses (8 %), in terms of competitiveness and cohesion (45%), or in relation to subsidies and grants (41%). If the percentage is as if low relative to the overall EU budget, a comparison with other actors is discouraging international: Europe spends on foreign policy 0.99% of what the U.S. spends on defense only.
In conclusion, the operational capabilities, legal and administrative provisions of the European Union in international politics are very far from the expectations of civil society deposits and requires the world community. International crises, such as we are living in the Mediterranean are proof that the problem goes beyond any weaknesses you may have Catherine Ashton. The problem is the distance between our political demands and means that our own representatives are willing to invest to achieve them. "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world, "said Archimedes to explain the balance of objects of different weights. Give me a fulcrum and a lever.
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