Foreign and Security Policy in Austerity Europe: Budgetary Aspects of the Development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy

Abstract

The CFSP of the EU has been a long time in the making. Whilst CFSP and more generally, the EU’s role in the world, has become a more pressing concern for the EU during the past decade, there remain considerable hurdles in developing an effective format in order to increase the EU’s influence. The Lisbon Treaty sought to streamline how the EU’s foreign policy activities are structured through the introduction of new institutions — the EEAS, the President of the European Council, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Barber, 2010) and the CFSP start-up fund. Developing the CFSP continues to be dogged by regular stand-offs between dynamics of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. Financing CFSP involves a hybrid structure of a common budget, intergovernmental agreements to fund operations as they emerge and national capabilities. Rather than empowering decision making, the Lisbon Treaty has renewed institutional turf wars in Brussels which have often centred on the budget. The global financial crisis, coupled with the euro crisis and reluctance on the part of member states to commit to Europeanising security and defence policy, has hampered significant steps towards building a more robust EU policy.

Thanks to the editors of this volume and to Dr Luis Simón for helpful comments on the draft of this chapter.