Currently, some 2,500 civilian experts work across Europe, Africa, and Asia in ten ongoing civilian missions launched under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Mandates cover a broad range of multidimensional tasks, such as rule of law support, law enforcement capacity building, or security sector reform. Numerous (recent) incidents from the field underscore that there are serious institutional as well as procedural weaknesses and irregularities tied to accountability in these EU peacebuilding missions. This title offers a comprehensive legal analysis and empirical study of accountability concerning the Union's peacebuilding endeavours, also referred to as civilian crisis management. Along with examining the governance credentials of EU peacebuilding, the monograph thoroughly scrutinizes de jure and de facto accountability arrangements of political, legal, and administrative nature existing in the domestic sphere, at EU level, and across levels. With a view to providing for a nuanced picture, the assessment further distinguishes between different accountability finalities and evaluates the appropriateness of existing accountability arrangements in civilian crisis management based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria.

Currently, some 2,500 civilian experts work across Europe, Africa, and Asia in ten ongoing civilian missions launched under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Mandates cover a broad range of multidimensional tasks, such as rule of law support, law enforcement capacity building, or security sector reform. Numerous (recent) incidents from the field underscore that there are serious institutional as well as procedural weaknesses and irregularities tied to accountability in these EU peacebuilding missions. This title offers a comprehensive legal analysis and empirical study of accountability concerning the Union's peacebuilding endeavours, also referred to as civilian crisis management. Along with examining the governance credentials of EU peacebuilding, the monograph thoroughly scrutinizes de jure and de facto accountability arrangements of political, legal, and administrative nature existing in the domestic sphere, at EU level, and across levels. With a view to providing for a nuanced picture, the assessment further distinguishes between different accountability finalities and evaluates the appropriateness of existing accountability arrangements in civilian crisis management based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria.

In 2002, the European Parliament and the Council concluded the Inter-institutional Agreement, which provided the EP with access to sensitive Council documents in the area of security and defence policy that the Council decided to withhold from the public. The agreement established an arrangement whereby a special committee, composed of five Members of the EP is allowed to peruse documents, but not share any of the information they gain access to. This paper assesses this arrangement from an accountability perspective. To what extent has the Interinstitutional Agreement strengthened the EP's ability to hold the Council to account for its foreign policy? The analysis shows that the Council's obligation to inform the EP has clearly improved, and the arrangement also gives the EP an opportunity to interrogate the activities of the Council in the field of security and defence. Thus, the arrangement introduces an element of checks and balances to EU security and defence policy. However, its effect is limited by the restriction on how the members of the special committee are allowed to use the information they acquire and the fact that the EP has few if any means to sanction the Council.

This edited volume analyzes recent key developments in EU border management. In light of the refugee crises in the Mediterranean and the responses on the part of EU member states, this volume presents an in-depth reflection on European border practices and their political, social and economic consequences. Approaching borders as concepts in flux, the authors identify three main trends: the rise of security technologies such as the EUROSUR system, the continued externalization of EU security governance such as border mission training in third states, and the unfolding dynamics of accountability. The contributions show that internal security cooperation in Europe is far from consolidated, since both political oversight mechanisms and the definition of borders remain in flux. This edited volume makes a timely and interdisciplinary contribution to the ongoing academic and political debate on the future of open borders and legitimate security governance in Europe. It offers a valuable resource for scholars in the fields of international security and migration studies, as well as for practitioners dealing with border management mechanisms.

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has come a long way since its inception as the European Security and Defence Identity under NATO. Yet more than a decade after emerging as an autonomous entity, with its own capacity for civilian crisis management and military action, the European Union's CSDP is still very much a work in progress. This fully revised and updated new edition provides the most comprehensive account available of the CSDP and the debates surrounding it. Written by a leading authority in the field, the second edition draws on the author's own extensive research in the area, including hundreds of interviews with key actors, and takes account of developments since the reforms of the Lisbon Treaty. A brand new chapter assesses international relations theory and European integration theory as tools to understand the CSDP, and critically engages with theoretical approaches that view security and defence policy as the exclusive domain of sovereign nation-states. The book concludes with an analysis of future hurdles for the European Union as it responds to new and often unpredictable crises across the globe.

The Real World of EU Accountability examines how the European Union operates in practice and how and where its various institutions are held to account for the decisions they take and the power they wield.

Presenting the first analytical overview of the legal foundations of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), this book provides a detailed examination of the law and practice of the EU's security policy. The European Union's security and defence policy has long been the focus of political scientists and international relations experts. However, it has more recently become of increasing relevance to lawyers too. Since the early 2000s, the EU has carried out more than two dozen security and defence missions in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The EU institutions are keen to stress the security dimension of other external policies also, such as development cooperation, and the Lisbon Treaty introduces a more detailed set of rules and procedures which govern the CSDP. This book provides a legal analysis of the Union's CSDP by examining the nexus of its substantive, institutional, and economic dimensions. Taking as its starting point the historical development of security and defence in the context of European integration, it outlines the legal framework created by the rules and procedures introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. It examines the military operations and civilian missions undertaken by the Union, and looks at the policy context within which they are carried out. It analyses the international agreements concluded in this field and explores the links between the CSDP and other external policies of the Union.