The European Union As Crisis Manager

This book provides a unique and comprehensive overview of the European Union's many crisis management capacities and explains their origins.

This book assesses the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the European Union (EU), as well as its response in dealing with an overarching, multidimensional crisis with consequences extending beyond public health safety to political, economic, legal, and institutional arenas. It argues the pandemic represents a symmetric crisis cutting across countries with different social, economic and political characteristics and which yet - despite favouring cooperative solutions at the supranational level - has largely been met with initial responses of a national, even local, nature. So, how well did the EU perform as a crisis manager in the pandemic crisis? This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers of crisis, pandemic and health management, European Union politics and governance.

After its failure to bring an end to the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the European Union has worked hard to close the infamous ‘capabilities-expectations gap’ in the field of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). In a very short timeframe, the EU agreed to the following: the institution of new political and military bodies; peculiar structures and procedures to ensure political guidance and strategic direction; principles for consultation and cooperation with non-European allies and other international organisations such as the UN and NATO; measures to enhance the Union’s military and civilian capabilities; and the adoption of an acquis sécuritaire, including a European Security Strategy. The most striking manifestation and raison d’être of the ESDP is the European Union’s capacity to move beyond the paper security structures and back its diplomatic efforts by action on the ground. With the launching of more than twenty ESDP operations in barely five years' time, the EU has affirmed its operational capacity in ESDP. While most of the early ESDP missions were fairly successful, they have also revealed shortfalls, bottlenecks as well as broader issues in crisis management. In this book, prominent academics and leading practitioners explore this wide variety of policy and legal aspects of ESDP and present the lessons which should be taken to heart now that the EU is facing its ‘maturity test’ as an international crisis manager in high-risk theatres around the world. The book will be an important tool for decision-makers, officials and academics involved in the further development of ESDP. Its contents incorporate the text and potential effects of the Lisbon Treaty and the ECJ’s judgment in the Small and Light Weapons/ECOWAS case. Dr Steven Blockmans is a Senior Research Fellow in EU law and Deputy Head of Research at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, The Hague. ​

Is the EU's post-Lisbon crisis management model adequate to tackle current international security challenges at both the strategic and the operational levels? The Lisbon Treaty has introduced a number of innovations in the field of the EU's crisis management which have the potential to reinvigorate the Union's security actorness, both as a norm setter (model by being) and an operational crisis manager (model by doing). This paper will investigate the prospects for the EU to become a credible security actor in the 21st century in connection with its capacity to: (1) adapt the conceptual framework of its crisis management system to the current security scenario; and (2) implement effective action on the ground. In particular, this analysis will take into consideration three main developments in the global security environment: (1) the rise of new security-political challenges; (2) the evolution of the concept of security; and (3) the proliferation of non-state actors in the field of security.

Faced with the deepest economic crisis in its history, the European Union established a seminal COVID-19 recovery package relying on common debt. This book analyses the European Council's key role as a crisis manager and transformative force of the EU system. Combining thick descriptions of the history-making events of 2020-21 with EU theorising, we explain and critically assess the innovative set-up of the recovery package. Inside the European Council, we find a remarkable impetus for political consensus among national leaders. However, their detailed and ambiguous decisions at times came at the cost of political delay, legal uncertainty, and thin public scrutiny.

In less than a decade, Europe has witnessed a series of large-scale natural disasters and two major terrorist attacks. Growing concern about the trans-national effects of these incidents has caused the EU Member States to seek more multilateral cooperation. As a result, a system of common arrangements for handling large-scale emergencies or disasters has emerged, which, due to its quick and ad-hoc development, may seem almost impenetrable to newcomers to the field. This book seeks to provide a much-needed overview of disaster and crisis management systems in the EU. It provides a basic understanding of how EU policy has evolved, the EU’s mandate, and above all, a concise and hands-on description of the most central crisis management arrangements. Written by some of Europe’s main experts and consultants in the field, this book represents a unique and comprehensive source of information for everyone involved or interested in the European Union crisis management system. "This book will quickly become an indispensable resource for two groups: Practitioners will enjoy its accessible and comprehensive style. Academics curious about this emerging field will turn to it for an introductory overview. As someone who closely studies this field, I find the book engaging, detailed, and accurate, and I read every line with great interest. The authors are to be commended for the quality of research that went into this work." Mark Rhinard, Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI)

This book analyzes the approach of the European Union to crisis management after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and it assesses the EU's suitability for addressing current and future security threats. The book primarily provides a framework of analysis with which to interpret current EU crisis management, as both a product of the innovations of the Lisbon Treaty and its interaction with the international security environment. It also offers a comprehensive and in-depth examination of the post-Lisbon crisis management system, in terms of concepts, structures, process, and capabilities. A reality check of this system is conducted by analyzing a number of case studies in which the EU recently carried out a crisis management role: the civilian missions EUCAP Sahel Niger, EUCAP Nestor, and EUAVSEC South Sudan, as well as the military operation EUTM Mali. This analysis sheds light on the modalities selected by the EU for intervening in crisis situations, the impact that its interventions have produced, and the lessons that the EU has learned from these experiences. The book points out the structural strengths and weaknesses in the EU's approach to and implementation of crisis management, and it shows how they impact the EU's ability to cope with future crises. It fills a gap in the existing literature and, at the same time, provides decision makers with policy recommendations for improving the EU's performance in this field. *** "This is an important piece of research on the theory and practice of 'crisis management' as carried out by the European Union. The book constitutes a significant contribution to understanding the doctrine, the institutions and the actual policies that underpin the Union's external action. Its comprehensive and forward-looking approach ensures that both scholars and practitioners will find it an indispensable tool to rely upon in the future." -- Dr. Antonio Missiroli, Director of the European Union Inst. for Security Studies Subject: EU Law]

This handbook comprehensively explores the European Union’s institutional and policy responses to crises across policy domains and institutions – including the Euro crisis, Brexit, the Ukraine crisis, the refugee crisis, as well as the global health crisis resulting from COVID-19. It contributes to our understanding of how crisis affects institutional change and continuity, decision-making behavior and processes, and public policy-making. It offers a systematic discussion of how the existing repertoire of theories understand crisis and how well they capture times of unrest and events of disintegration. More generally, the handbook looks at how public organizations cope with crises, and thus probes how sustainable and resilient public organizations are in times of crisis and unrest.