European Border Conflicts: Failures and Inabilities of EU Foreign and Security Policy

Since it was created by the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EU is facing difficulties in addressing and settle crisis. So far, the EU proved unable to solve alone the conflicts that have arisen at its doors, with the long time running Israeli–Palestinian and Cyprus issue still unfixed. Other international organizations –i.e., NATO and OSCE–intervened to resolve some of these conflicts. Despite the overlap of some of these organizations, that share theirs members with the EU, the Union is not able to achieve an ownership in the field of peace, stability and security at its borders, and and his claim to be a global actor proves weak-willed. It would be useful to investigate the reasons for this incapacity: lack of a real and exclusive autonomy in matters of foreign policy; lack of a European army; subjection to US-led NATO; national interest of EU member states.