Communication from the Commission: Conflict Prevention

The ever-growing list of causes of conflicts calls for international co-operation and multilateral action of a new order. The EU, itself an on-going exercise in making peace and prosperity, has a big role to play in global efforts for conflict prevention. For this, it has at its disposal a wide range of instruments for long term or short term action.

Both among its immediate neighbours and throughout the world, the EU seeks to project stability in supporting regional integration and in building trade links. With a long experience in these fields, the EU is well placed to do so. Direct support to regional structures in Africa and autonomous trade concessions to the Western Balkans are examples of instruments with a long-term stabilisation perspective.

Development policy and other co-operation programmes provide the most powerful instruments at the Community's disposal for treating the root causes of conflict. There is a need to take a genuinely long-term and integrated approach, which will address all aspects of structural stability in countries at risk. In doing so, co-ordination between Commission and Member States activities must be ensured. On a practical level, strategic documents (Country Strategy Papers) elaborated for each country receiving EC assistance will be the key tools to mainstream such an approach into co-operation programmes. Appropriate indicators will also be used.

In countries showing conflict potential, there may be a need to focus external aid on the (re)emergence of a favourable political environment (e.g. support to democracy, rule of law, civil society, independent media, gender equality etc). There may be also a need for the Community to become more involved in security sector reform. When a country emerges from conflict, the Community should contribute to the consolidation of peace through specific programmes such as rehabilitation.

Another approach to mainstreaming conflict prevention is to find more effective ways, within the Union and in the wider international context, to address crosscutting issues, which may contribute to tension and conflict. The most important ones concern drugs, small arms, natural resources, environmental degradation, population flows, human trafficking and to some extent, private sector interests in unstable areas. Community instruments in these areas may be further developed.

In parallel to long-term preventive action, the EU should improve its ability to react quickly where a situation in a particular country seems to be entering a downward spiral. This clearly requires an effective early warning system. In pre-crisis situations, many Community instruments including new ones such as the Rapid Reaction Mechanism can be used. The EU can deploy a variety of options ranging from political dialogue to Special Representatives and including, in the future, civilian crisis management mechanisms. All of these may be improved, made more systematic and flexible. But in any case they need to be based on a common political line between EU Member States.

Potential conflicts often cross borders. This demands international co-operation on long term prevention activities as well as co-ordination of responses to pre-crisis situations. The EU will therefore strengthen its co-operation with international partners active in the field of conflict prevention, such as US, Canada, Russia, Japan and Norway, main international organisations such as UN and OSCE as well as NGOs.


For the full text of this document, please go to:

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/2001/com2001_0211en01.pdf

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