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10 Eur. Foreign Aff. Rev. 359 (2005)
The European Security and Defence Policy: Built on Rocks or Sand?

handle is hein.kluwer/eurofa0010 and id is 367 raw text is: European Foreign Affairs Review 10: 359-379, 2005. © 2005 Kluwer Law International. The European Security and Defence Policy: Built on Rocks or Sand?* TREVOR SALMON** I Introduction The evolution of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) into a working military agenda has been fraught with uncertainties and a lack of European solidarity on a number of key issues. These issues were there even before the recent French and Dutch referendums plunged the European Union into crisis. They loom even larger now. The division of Europe over the Iraq War in the early stages of 2003 gave every indication that it was to be a continental 'annus horribilus' and looked as if the aspirations of the St Malo initiative were doomed to fail. After the intergovernmental conference finally agreed a draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, and the 'EU Battlegroup Commitments',' it was still possible to ask if the European Security and Defence Policy was built on rock or sand. After the draft Treaty was defeated in France and Holland, the question still arises about the future of the ESDP. If some of the Constitution is saved will it involve the ESDP? Despite a generation of statements and gradualist moves towards a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), there is still no certainty about the practicability and applicability of the norms, principles, rules and decision- making procedures embodied in the European Union's claim to speak and act as a single voice. Immediate post-War analysis is quick to articulate the divisions that disabled the EU prior to the invasion of Baghdad, but the 25 individual Member States of the EU have struggled to cope with these issues over many years. The question that must be asked is: are they better able to cope with them now? Far from being the straw that broke the camel's back, it * St. Matthew Chapter 24. Jesus talks of a man who had 'the sense to build his house on rock' and compared him with a man who built his house on sand (verses 24-27). Trudy Fraser, University of Aberdeen, has helped with this article. *. Professor of International Relations, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, UK. European Communities, Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (Luxembourg, OOP, 2005) and Military Commitment Conference, Brussels, 22 November 2004, Bulletin of the European Union, 11-2004. Copyright 2007 by Kluwer Law International. All Rights Reserved. No claim asserted to original goverment works

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