The European Union

Foreign and Security Common Policy: The European Security and Defence Identity

Abstract

The article analysis the outcome of Nice European Council and its
relevance for the European integration process. The existence of a Monsieur PESC reinforced and consolidated the Foreign
and Security Common Policy within the EU and proved its projection
outside it. Nevertheless it will not replace the foreign national policies, which is quite clear whenever one observes the difficulty with which the Fifteen try to find common positions on foreign policy issues. On what concerns Common Security and Defence Policy the much ambitioned “European rapid reaction force” might in the futurecause some difficulties between NATO and EU relationship, despite the fact so far this force has not gone beyond the commitment of existing forces. On the domain of conflict prevention, a larger involvement of the EU, in
the European security scenario demands a deeper commitment of
European states in that field, more than in the one of conflict resolution, for which Europe is not yet entirely ready to deal with due to its limited resources.