INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS A Compass for the CSDP INTERNATIONAL SECURITY POLICY WORKING GROUP April 2012 „ „ The European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy(CSDP) is intended to enable Europe to actively pursue peace in its neighbourhood. From the beginning, it has been a key concern of the Social Democrats’ policy on Europe. Emerging from EU impotence in the face of the violent break-up of the former Yugoslavia this policy instrument is supposed to enable effective European crisis management. Further­more, with the Lisbon Treaty the idea of a joint European defence policy gathered momentum. „ „ However, the CSDP has thus far yielded only meagre results, functioning as a supple­ment to national policy and based on the lowest common denominator among the member states. Real integration of national security policies has not taken place. At the same time, EU member states are currently suffering from a deep economic crisis which will make it difficult for them even to maintain the current level of spending on foreign and security policy for the foreseeable future. „ „ A new attempt to bring into being a Common European Security and Defence Policy is therefore needed. The present paper formulates the long-term goal of a political union that would shape the framework of a joint European security policy. This goal is still some way off, however. For the time being, only small steps are possible within the framework of the existing treaties. This includes the joint formulation of Euro­pean strategies, utilisation of Permanent Structured Cooperation, building up joint capabilities and close agreement with regard to national defence planning.