4. Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) - What is it?

The CFSP was established by the Maastricht Treaty as a replacement for EPC. In part, CFSP was a product of a realization that the existing machinery for political and military cooperation was and had been inadequate to the task of formulating and implementing a common European position on international issues. Through the Falklands campaign (1982), the Gulf War (1990-1991) and the Yugoslavian crisis (1990-1998) the European responses had often been at odds with one another, had been uncoordinated, slow and often seemingly chaotic.

Below are some distinctive features of Common Foreign and Security Policy:

	Unlike EPC, which was independent of the formal community structure, CFSP for the first time brings an explicit political and military-defense component to the European project.
	CFSP is formally one of the three 'pillars' of the European Union (the other two being the European Community and Justice and Home Affairs).
	Unlike the EC, the CFSP will operate primarily through intergovernmental cooperation. In other words, while the CFSP is part of the EU, it will operate like EPC in a manner largely independent of the institutions of the Community.
	CFSP formally covers "all questions related to the security of the Union, including the eventual framing of a common defence policy, which might in time lead to a common defence".

The principal objectives of CFSP are set out in the Maastricht Treaty as follows:

	To safeguard the common values, fundamental interests and independence of the European Union.
	To strengthen the security of the Union and its member states.
	To preserve peace and strengthen international security in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the Helsinki Act (which created the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe; a forum for all the nations of Europe as well as the United States and Canada).
	To promote international cooperation
	To develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The principal aim of the CFSP is to allow the European Union to "assert its identity on the international scene." Whereas EPC aimed to have member countries make policy together, the CFSP explicitly requires that EU members make and implement policy together. When a common position is taken, member states are then legally obliged to ensure that their national policies conform to it.

While voting on the making of policy is to be by unanimity, voting on the appropriate means of implementing decisions is to be by qualified majority voting. This is highly significant for the effectiveness of CFSP. The unanimity requirement (historically the basis of EC decision-making) means that if only one country dissents from a common position, the EU will fail to adopt a common position. One salient disadvantage to unanimity is the potential for decision-making to remain slow and ineffective if countries attempt to negotiate side-payments in other issue areas in return for assent over a common foreign policy position.

Where decisions have defense or military implications the EU will ask for the help of the WEU to implement them. Maastricht also makes clear that the CFSP will not prejudice the defense and security policies of the individual member states in NATO.