BACKGROUND TO THE GFSP PROJECT

The project on Greening Foreign and Security Policy: The Role of Europe is an initiative of the Institute for Environmental Security (IES) and the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE-EU), in association with several other organisations. The aim is to review current European and international policies and best practices and identify gaps and possible policy options for the better integration of environment, development and security policies.

The project should result in suggestions for a new European Parliament report and resolution on environment and security in 2007.

This project is running parallel to several other relevant international initiatives.

• The European Commission is carrying out a study on "Addressing the interlinkages between natural resources management and conflict in the EC's external relations".
• It has been suggested that the upcoming German EU Presidency organise an expert meeting in February and an EU Member State meeting in March on environment and security.
• Preparations are under way for the Fifteenth Economic Forum of the OSCE, in January 2007 in Vienna and May 2007 in Prague, the theme of which will be “Key challenges to ensure environmental security and sustainable development in the OSCE area: Land degradation, soil contamination and water management”.
• The Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative of NATO, OSCE, UNDP, and UNEP has been strengthened with two new partners, REC and UNECE, and the geographic scope of the Initiative has been broadened.
• At the OECD, work began in 2005 focuses on how to help development actors identify and respond to critical issues linking environment, conflict and peace and strengthen environmental management to prevent conflict and build peace.

Key issues being addressed in our project include:

Mainstreaming Environmental Factors into EU Foreign Policy
What needs to be done to promote the further mainstreaming of environmental factors into EU foreign and security policy (including energy and food security and security related to other resources such as land, water, living marine resources, and terrestrial biodiversity)?

Mainstreaming of Conflict Prevention into EU Development Cooperation
What needs to be done to help promote the further mainstreaming of conflict prevention and livelihood protection into EU development cooperation especially in vulnerable countries?

Civilian-Military Cooperation
How can military and non-military assets and resources be better deployed and co-ordinated in the pursuit of environmental protection and sustainable development policies and measures? And what additional capabilities will be needed for responding to environment-related humanitarian emergencies?

EU-US Cooperation
How can there be increased transatlantic cooperation on environment, sustainable development and security?

The project was launched at the GLOBE-EU - IES Symposium on Sustainable Development and Security at the European Parliament on 31 May 2006. The aim of the symposium was to raise political issues with interested Members of the European Parliament related to improving the integration of environmental and development concerns, notably Climate Change, into the EU's existing Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security Strategy.

Working Groups on Greening European Security
Four working groups were set up to review current policies and best practices and seek to identify gaps in European and international policy and action with respect to four stages in the conflict cycle:

• Group A: Predicting Instability - Monitoring and risk assessments in vulnerable areas and measures to avoid conflict.
  
• Group B: Preventing Conflict - Policy instruments and measures for areas of escalating tensions and for conflict prevention (military and non-military).
  
• Group C: Building Peace - Crisis management and resolution in the event of conflict (military and non-military).
  
• Group D: Recovery and Transition - Post conflict restoration, reconstruction and structural adaptation.

The Greening European Security blog has been set up to help facilitate the exchange of ideas and views among working group members and as a public forum to receive comments and suggestions from other interested parties.The final reports and recommendations of the working groups will be presented at a conference on Greening Foreign and Security Policy in December 2006.

If you would like to comment on the project in general or contribute ideas and views which are not necessarily associated with a particular working group or discussion paper, click below: comments.