The CFSP of the EU – The View from Austria
Vladislava Gubalova, PhD, Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Europe (ed.): From Contestation to Buy-In: The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy as seen from European Capitals – National Approaches to the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. A Collaborative Report
25.05.2021
Though the European Union (EU) is a global actor in areas like trade and climate, the bloc has struggled to develop a coherent common foreign and security policy (CFSP). EU external action is rather often plagued by institutional inefficiencies and a lack of shared strategy. Recognizing these shortcomings, member states have agitated for the EU to become a more responsive and coherent actor and to acquire a more prominent international role.
Strategic coherence provides one vehicle to strengthen the EU CFSP through shared goals that are attentive to different national interests and contexts. Broader changes in the institutional framework of the EU (e.g. the extension of qualified majority voting in foreign and security policy), meanwhile, are considered unnecessary and unwelcome. Instead, available mechanisms (e.g. coalitions of the willing and constructive abstentions) are deemed preferable for overcoming divides between national governments.
This collaborative report of the Centre for Global Europe includes 15 country chapters based on the responses of distinguished experts to four questions collected March – May 2021.
Austria – National approaches towards EU's common foreign and security policy
By Sofia Maria Satanakis, Senior Research Fellow, and Velina Tchakarova, Director, Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES)