A European way of security: the Madrid Report of the Human Security Study Group

In the past five years the European Union has developed the capacity and willingness to intervene in difficult and dangerous locations, to deal with crises, to improve the chances of people to lead peaceful lives and to contribute to regional and international security. This Report is about how the EU has built this global security role so far, and where it should go next. The Barcelona Report of 2004 declared that the most appropriate approach for Europe in the twenty-first century would be to promote human security. This Report spells out what a European Human Security approach means, and addresses the criticisms levelled at it. It looks at five cases where the EU has intervened to deal with political violence and to rebuild societies torn apart by civil war, and shows how a Human Security approach is relevant to those operations. The Report concludes that in the wake of the Reform Treaty and the `Global War on Terror' the EU should now define a distinctive European Way of Security, based on Human Security principles, which would enable it to intervene more effectively in crises, and take forward its foreign and security policies in a way which commands the support of its citizens and addresses the needs of vulnerable communities. Human Security should provide a new operating framework for European Union external action.