Assessing Current CFSP Structures and Processes and Formulating Recommendations

This paper comprehensively assesses the current governance structures, policy processes, instruments and tools of the European Union’s (EU) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It proposes reforms, formulates recommendations and indicates the level of complexity of the implementation of these recommendations. We argue that many of the recommendations do not necessarily require a Treaty change. Instead, EU institutions could use the “sleeping beauties” of the Treaties that currently exist, in particular the special CFSP passerelle clause under Article 31(3) of the Treaty on European Union, to shift from unanimity to Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). As a complete shift to QMV seems a bridge too far at the moment, we propose a step-by-step approach. Apart from voting rules, we also reveal that decision-making more generally might need to be looked at to make full use of CFSP, as well as a further investment in sharing the necessary intelligence information.