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18 Eur. Foreign Aff. Rev. 7 (2013)
Legal Obstacles to Comprehensive EU External Security Action

handle is hein.kluwer/eurofa0018 and id is 487 raw text is: Legal Obstacles to Comprehensive EU External Security Action Steven BLOCKMANS & Martina Sl'EkNBAUEu.* Despite the unification qf the EU legal order, the merger of external action objectives and the creation of hybrid coordination structures, the dichotomy between the CFSP and non-CFSP categories of EU external action has been maintained in the Lisbon Treaty. This article considers the legal implications of this dichotomy in the sphere of EU external security provision. It will be argued that the specificity of CFSP instruments, Member State preferences for a legal basis that provides them with veto power in decision-making procedures, the absence of judicial review from the realm of CFSP, and the two-way 'non-contamination clause' of Article 40 TEU effectively stand in the way of 'mixing' EU foreign policy measures in the field of external security action and thus hinder a comprehensive approach to conflict prevention, crisis management and peacebuilding. New inter-institutional clashes over the choice of the proper legal basis in EU external security action have already been brought before the ECJ. This article argues that, in view of the Lisbon Treaty's merger of EU foreign policy objectives and revised non-contamination clause, the objectives-based 'centre of gravity' approach developed by the Court in its jurisprudence will have to be recalibrated in order to reconcile the quest for the proper legal basis in one of the EU Treaties and the comprehensive approach to EU security provision. 1 BETWEEN AMBITION AND LEGAL REALITY An analysis of the Treaties, key policy documents and the implementation on the ground, reveals that EU external security provision has been construed in broad terms.' In law, policy and practice, there is a constant interplay between the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP), the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), and the other strands of the Union's external action, especially development cooperation and the promotion of justice. The concept of Steven Blocklnans, Professor of EU External Relations Law and Governance, University of Amsterdam; Head of the EU Foreign Policy progranmme, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); iiber of the governing board, Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER). Martina Spernbauer, Attach~e, Justice and Security Sector Reform, EU Delegation to Afghanistan; author of EU Peacebuilding in Kosovo and Afghanistan: Legality and Accountability (Brill Publishers, 2014 fortlhcoining).The views expressed in this article are the author's views and do not reflect the position of the European Conmuission, or the EEAS. See e.g., P. Koutrakos, The EU Coninon Security and Defense Policy (Oxford U. Press 2013); and the contributions to T[ie European Union and Crisis Management: Policy and lbyal Aspects (S. Blockinans ed., T.M.C. Asser Press 2008). Blockmans, Steven & Spernbauer, Martina. 'Legal Obstacles to Comprehensive EU External Security Action'. European ForeignAffairs Review 18, Special Issue (2013): 7-24. © 2013 Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

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