foreign affairs and security policy-NA0318319ENN.pdf

Foreign affairs and security policy The EU’s foreign and security policy enables it to speak and act as one in world affairs, allowing the Member States to tackle challenges they cannot solve alone and ensuring the security and prosperity of EU citizens. The policy is implemented by t he E U’s forei...

Foreign affairs and security policy The EU’s foreign and security policy enables it to speak and act as one in world affairs, allowing the Member States to tackle challenges they cannot solve alone and ensuring the security and prosperity of EU citizens. The policy is implemented by t he E U’s foreign affairs c hief, t he High Representative of t he Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (who is also a Vice-President of the Commission), and supported by the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic service. The EU’s external actions are guided by the principles that inspired its own creation and development, and which it seeks to promote in the wider world, including peace, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms. What the EU does In 2016 the High Representative/Vice-­ President launched the Global Strategy for the EU’s Foreign and Security ­Policy to enhance stability in the European neighbourhood and beyond, boost security and defence and deal with challenges such as energy security, irregular migration, climate change and terrorism. The follow-up on security and defence has been particularly swift, with the adoption of a wide-ranging EU security and defence package in 2016 to see Europe take more responsibility for these areas. The global strategy set the following five priorities for EU action: the security of the EU; state and societal resilience; an integrated approach to conflicts and crises; cooperative regional orders; and global governance for the 21st century. The EU supports countries facing conflict and crisis. It is the leading donor in the international response to the Syria crisis, with over €11 billion provided to support the Syrian people, and it continues to support international efforts to bring peace to the Middle East by supporting a two-state solution with a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. The agreement reached in 2015 on the Iranian nuclear programme demonstrated the EU’s role in leading peace talks on behalf of the international community. In 2018 there were 16 ongoing civilian missions and military operations on three continents. Deployment decisions are made jointly by national ministers from EU countries. Success stories include EU peacekeeping missions in several of the world’s trouble spots, the training of police, soldiers and coastguards, support for state-building in post-conflict situations and fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa. The EU has no standing army, but brings together forces contributed by its Member States under the EU flag. The European Defence Fund launched in 2017 coordinates, supplements and amplifies national investments in defence so as to increase outputs and develop defence technology and equipment to meet current and future security needs. http://bit.ly/2zn3YcF Find out more: https://ec.europa.eu/info/topics/foreign-affairs-and-security-policy_en European Commission reflection paper on the future of European defence facebook.com/EuropeanExternalActionService @eu_eeas Getting in touch with the EU ONLINE Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on the Europa website at: https://europa.eu/european-union/­ index_en IN PERSON All over the European Union there are hundreds of Europe Direct information centres. You can find the address of the centre nearest you at: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en ON THE PHONE OR BY EMAIL Europe Direct is a service that answers your questions about the European Union. You can contact this service: by freephone: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (certain operators may charge for these calls), at the following standard number: 00 32 2 299 9696 or by email via: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en READ ABOUT EUROPE Publications about the EU are only a click away on the EU Publications website: https://op.europa.eu/en/publications EUROPEAN COMMISSION REPRESENTATIONS The European Commission has offices (representations) in all the Member States of the European Union: https://ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/contact/localoffices-eu-member-countries_en EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LIAISON OFFICES The European Parliament has a liaison office in every Member State of the European Union: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/en/stay-informed/liaisonoffices-in-your-country EUROPEAN UNION DELEGATIONS The European Union also has delegations in other parts of the world: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/area/geo_en Other factsheets in the series ‘What the European Union does’ Agriculture and rural development Banking and financial services Borders and security Budget Business and industry Climate action and the European Green Deal Competition Consumers Culture and media Customs Digital economy and society Economy, finance and the euro Education and training Employment and social affairs Energy Environment EU enlargement European neighbourhood policy Food safety Foreign affairs and security policy Fraud prevention Humanitarian aid and civil protection International cooperation and development Justice and fundamental rights Maritime affairs and fisheries Migration and asylum Public health Regional policy Research and innovation Single market Sport Taxation Trade Transport Youth Manuscript completed in January 2020 The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union,2020 Questions about the European Union? Europe Direct can help: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11, http://europedirect.europa.eu This factsheet is part of the publication ‘The European Union: What it is and what it does’. An interactive version, containing links to online content, is available in PDF and HTML format at: https://op.europa.eu/webpub/com/ eu-what-it-is/en/ © European Union, 2020 The reuse policy of European Commission documents is implemented by the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). Except otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated. For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the European Union, permission may need to be sought directly from the respective rightholders. All pictures: © Shutterstock, © Fotolia Print ISBN 978-92-79-95281-4 doi:10.2775/435351 NA-03-18-319-EN-C PDF ISBN 978-92-79-95266-1 doi:10.2775/13095 NA-03-18-319-EN-N