Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

The 2016 Global Strategy (EUGS)¹¹ is the strategic framework guiding the EU’s foreign and security policy. In addition, the 2022 Strategic Compass provides guidance for the following decade and sets out a consistent set of actions, ways and means, and clear targets in the realm of security and defence. All key Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) documents since 2016, including the Civilian CSDP Compact, draw on the Global Strategy and the five priorities it outlines for the EU’s external action, including how to build a more ‘joined-up Union’. The EUGS refers to joint programming as a key tool for greater coordination and consistency between the EU and EU Member States. This applies not only within development cooperation, but also beyond that: ‘New fields of our joined-up external action include energy diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and economic diplomacy. A more prosperous Union calls for greater coordination between the EU and Member States, the EIB and the private sector. We must become more joined-up across internal and external policies’. Becoming more joined-up is furthered by the EU’s integrated approach, which stipulates a coherent use of all available EU policies and instruments, and maximises synergies and complementarity between internal and external security, security and development, and the civilian and military dimensions of our CSDP.

11 https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3eaae2cf-9ac5-11e6-868c-01aa75ed71a1