Partnerships

Ever since the inception of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the notion of partnerships has been firmly em-bedded into the EU’s strategic DNA. The relevant Maastricht Treaty provisions referenced not only the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, but also the obligations relating to Europe’s common defense organized under the North Atlantic Treaty. Promoting international cooperation, further-more, was more than a mere means to an end: it constituted a foreign policy objective in its own right. As the EU is in the process of re-codifying its bearings via the Strategic Com-pass, it is worthwhile to evaluate what the original partnership agenda has delivered, by what issues it has been plagued, and what may be expected in terms of its future prospects.

Keywords:CSDP, NATO, UN, Strategic Compass

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