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The EU’s Eurocorps on parade, Strasbourg. Photo © Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons
This is the EU's idea of the role of a European military force, as expounded by "High Representative" Frederica Mogherini:
- Supporting conditions for achieving and implementing peace agreements and ceasefire arrangements, and/or rapidly providing EU bridging operations for the deployment of wider UN peacekeeping missions, including no-permissive environments;
- Temporarily substituting or reinforcing domestic civilian security, law enforcement or rule of law, in case of breakdown of normal state functions;
- Projecting stability in order to re-establish security in a degrading humanitarian situation, by protecting civilians, denying a terrorist organisation or armed group a foothold in a fragile country, or creating a safe environment in which a country can recover from war and destabilisation;
- Contributing to maritime security/surveillance worldwide but most immediately in areas relevant to Europe in the context of specific security needs, including with aerial and space capabilities;
- Providing rapid support to national or UN actors involved in addressing massive health pandemics or the fall-out of national disasters, including situations of public disorder;
- Supporting the evacuation of European citizens if required with military means.
This list has been described as a 21st-century Monroe doctrine, the EU asserting its right to take military action wherever it perceives its interests to be threatened: "areas relevant to Europe". The EU has its eye on the Middle East, Russia and China, to name but a few.
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