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PODCAST: The EU’s role in European security and defence

On the 21 of March 2022, the Council of the EU adopted a Strategic Compass, a roadmap for the EU to become a stronger security and defence actor. But what does this really mean, and does it change the EUs role as a security actor in any significant way?
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People

Pernille Rieker
Research Professor
Steven Blockmans
Director, CEPS

These are some of the questions that were discussed in this episode of The World Stage:

 

The EU strategic compass has been worked on for some time but had to be rewritten in the very last phase due to the Russian change of behavior and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since the 1990s, the EU has adopted a series of documents aiming at strengthening the Union’s defence capabilities. And there has been progress: the EU has since 2003 undertaken over 30 crisis management operations and a series of initiatives have been taken to boost the integrated European defence capabilities.

This has been done through various mechanisms – such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and European Defence Fund. Still, the EU has struggled to overcome one overarching problem, and that is to act rapidly when faced with a crisis that also require a military response. The newly adopted strategic compass aims at filling this gap.

Is this document something qualitatively different from other documents that the EU has produced since the Common security and defence policy was first established in the early 2000?

Guest in this episode of The World Stage is Steven Blockmans, Research Director at CEPS and Professor at Amsterdam University. Host for this episode is Pernille Rieker, Research Professor and coordinator for the NUPI Centre for European studies.

This episode was recorded on 6 May 2022.

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Themes

  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • The EU

People

Pernille Rieker
Research Professor
Steven Blockmans
Director, CEPS