European operations for international peace and security, ESDP

One of the EU's most important goals, as expressed in the Treaty on European Union, is to preserve peace and strengthen international security. By means of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, all the Union's members work together in many different ways to contribute to international peace efforts. One such method is to conduct different types of civilian and/or military peace-support operations in crisis- or conflict-ridden areas.

Different crisis management tasks

This EU cooperation is called the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). EU peace-support operations can have different tasks in a conflict area, such as:

• support to the establishment of a functioning and democratic police service
• military peace-keeping tasks
• supervision of weapons collection and demobilisation of former combatants
• support for border surveillance
• peace enforcement tasks
• support for the establishment of a functioning and democratic judicial system.

An operation can often have several different tasks, at times simultaneously and at times varying over time, depending on how the conflict develops. Since 2003, the Union has launched, and in some cases already completed, a large number of civilian and/or military operations in areas such as the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. Sweden has contributed personnel to all these operations.

The Swedish perspective

The Swedish Government takes a very positive view of how the Union's crisis management capability has developed. Current security policy problems require increasingly complex solutions. It is therefore more important than ever to cooperate with other countries that, like Sweden, have the necessary will and resources to provide versatile and effective support to areas of the world that are troubled by war and conflict. The EU has a responsibility, based on the principle of solidarity, to contribute to peace efforts in troubled parts of the world. The capacity to conduct civilian and military peace-support operations is an important part of this work.

Sweden is also actively working to ensure that a conflict prevention perspective is integrated into EU security policy, as it is in our national security policy. The Union's work to prevent armed conflicts is based on the programme that was adopted at the EU Summit in Göteborg in June 2001. This programme contains concrete measures on how the EU, in close cooperation with the UN and regional organisations, can better prevent armed conflicts.

Women, peace and security

Sweden has also successfully promoted the issue of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security within the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy. An action plan on implementing the Resolution's principles in all EU operations has been adopted. The action plan is also a contribution to EU gender equality work. A code of conduct for personnel taking part in EU crisis management operations has also been drawn up. Further, the EU has begun including gender advisers in some of its missions.