PACT OF STABILITY IN EUROPE - A SECURITY PROFILE OF EU IN GREATER EUROPE

As part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the plan aims at formalizing security relations between the EU and the Central and East European countries within the framework of the CSCE. It defines the EU as a ''catalyst'' in the organization of a system of preventive conflict solution based on 1) the principles and instruments of the CSCE and the European Council and 2) an agreed-upon division of roles between the EU on the one hand and relevant institutions like NATO, WEU, CSCE, the Council of Europe and UN, on the other. In this way it links future European security as a whole to the expanding process of EU integration, at the same time giving the concept of security a primarily ''civilian'' character, which again will tend to strengthen the position of the EU relatively. To promote efficiency, the EU will handle the inaugural conference in Paris at the end of May 1994 as well as its follow-up on the basis of the so-called ''joint action'' procedure. The exclusion of military measures from the plan reflects the present incapability of the EU in this field. Seen in the light of recent developments, however, the role of the EU/WEU is likely to increase also in the context of collective military action. Such action will have to be authorized by CSCE/UN decisions.