Addressing conflict prevention, peace-building and security issues under external cooperation instruments

Guidance Note

The Lisbon Treaty has - for the first time - explicitly enshrined, as one of the objectives of the EU’s external action “to preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen international security, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter […]”. This new development needs also to be seen against a wider picture of global instability where - according to the World Development Report 2011 on Conflict, Security and Development - approximately 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles of political and criminal violence. Such a lack of stability in one country or region is detrimental to our development efforts there, and may have spill-over effects to other more stable areas including the EU, through refugee flows, trafficking in human beings and drugs, organised crime networks, etc.