Case Studies of the EU’s CSDP Activity

Ester Sabatino, Alexander Mesarovich, Arto Väisänen, Gaspard Schnitzler & Federico Santopinto

Civilian and military missions and operations represent one of the main activities of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

In twenty years of deployment abroad, the European Union (EU) has engaged in 40 deployments in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Thus, CSDP is one relevant tool for the external action of the EU.

This paper evaluates CSDP missions and operations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali.

The pool of selected case studies includes missions and operations that represented institutional firsts, such as the EU Police Mission (EUPM) in BiH or the European Union Force Democratic Republic of the Congo (EUFOR), Operation Artemis, and deployments that have lasted for more than a decade.

These deployments are characterised by different cooperative frameworks with third countries and international organisations, thus allowing an evaluation of how the EU interacts with partners.

The paper applies the assessment framework presented in ENGAGE Working Paper 9 to evaluate effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and sustainability of CSDP activities.

The results of the analysis show differences among the deployments, while also identifying common obstacles.

These common obstacles suggest the possibility to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of EU external action.