THE EUROPEAN UNION'S ROLE IN PEACEBUILDING

The EU was established as a peacebuilding mechanism for Europe after the Second World War. Today, as a union of 27 Member States, it is a major international peacebuilding actor with a common commitment to build ‘a secure and peaceful world.’ Equal to the United States in economic strength, it is the world’s largest trading bloc, the biggest global humanitarian and development donor and is present in more than 120 countries, over a third of which are affected by conflict.

International Alert aims to improve the effectiveness of the EU’s effort to prevent violent conflict. The primary vehicle for this is the Initiative for Peacebuilding, a partnership which includes 10 European organizations that are expert in identifying the challenges and recommending ways forward.

1. policy dialogue, both with partner governments and with other key actors inside and outside the region (such as Russia, China and India). Dialogue covers a number of policy areas ranging from energy and trade to governance and human rights.
2. economic incentives, such as closer co-operation, preferential access to EU markets and support for loans and investments. The reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Carribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, entering into force on 1 January 2008, have enormous significance in this regard.
3. development assistance provided through budget lines for technical assistance and aid for humanitarian and development purposes and orientated through the elaboration of Regional and Country Strategy Papers.
4. security-, Rule of Law- and public administration-related interventions under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and under short-term actions put in place with Community (1st pillar) financing.

The EU’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of its contribution to peacebuilding are manifested in a wide variety of statements, communications and other documents. Foremost among these is the Programme of Action for the Prevention of Violent Conflict set out in Gothenburg in 2001. This is being complemented by emerging institutional generic work on Fragile States and Situations as well as region-specific approaches such as the EU-Africa Strategy. Internal guidelines have also been circulated within the Commission to promote systematic attention to conflict prevention and crisis management and a check-list of root causes of conflict has been produced. However, greater political will, capacity building and technical expertise is needed to put existing policy commitments into practice and further improve the effectiveness of the EU’s contribution to peacebuilding.

By doing this we aim to ensure that the EU addresses the long-term root causes and evolving drivers of violent conflict and puts the goal of peacebuilding at the centre of its policy and institutional practices. This requires coherent structures and strategies across all EU policy and practice that are informed by the people who are affected by conflict.

• Providing expert advice to the EU Presidencies and other relevant EU and Member State officials on policy, training, tools development and events
• Facilitating dialogue between EU representatives and civil society from Europe and conflict-affected countries, between Presidencies and across the EU institutions and Member States
• Policy analysis and recommendation through the production of joint position papers and briefings
• Advocacy initiatives including organisation of seminars, launches and media events in London, Brussels and other EU capitals Monitoring, consultation and research on critical conflict issues and progress of EU conflict prevention policy and practice in Brussels and countries affected by conflict

International Alert also works within a number of networks and partnerships to promote peacebuilding within and amongst the EU: