The Comprehensive Approach in EU External Action: Prospects and Trends in the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy
In the conclusions of the 2015 European Council (June 25 and 26) member states agreed that “the High Representative will continue the process of strategic reflection with a view to preparing an EU global strategy on foreign and security policy in close cooperation with Member States, to be submitted to the European Council by June 2016”. Previously, in 2013, the European Commission agreed in a joint communication – “The EU’s comprehensive approach to external conflict and crisis” – highlighting how the Lisbon Treaty calls for consistency between the different areas of EU external action. The dramatic and massive flows of economic migrants and refugees towards Europe clearly illustrate how the so called comprehensive approach is so important to EU’s external action: first, through the intensification of narratives and practices on the external dimension of internal security; second, through the internationalization of external policies; and third, through the externalization of the internal security. This presentation then aims to contribute to a wider discussion on the academic literature on the nexus security/development and internal/external, focusing on the prospects of the upcoming Global strategy for EU’s normative role addressing the root causes of conflict in the name of the effective multilateralism.
Ana Isabel Xavier . xavier.anaisabel@gmail.com
IPRI – Portuguese International Relations Institute
Invited Assistant Professor in the Political Studies Department in Nova University and a Research Fellow in the Portuguese International Relations Institute. She holds a PhD in International Relations/European Studies (University of Coimbra). Her main research areas and publications cover the European Union, Security and Defence, Human Security, Human Rights and Globalization. She is the head of the European Studies section of the Portuguese Political Science Association and a member of the Portuguese Security Studies Network.