The European Union should anticipate having a bigger role in foreign policy issues such as peacekeeping, conflict resolution and post-conflict resolution, the Irish foreign minister has said.
Speaking in Brussels on 10 December, the day the EU leaders were in Oslo to receive the Nobel peace prize, Eamon Gilmore said that he is “expecting the EU to play a bigger role in peace and security as its strengthens its foreign policy arm through he European External Action Service (EEAS).
He was speaking as Ireland prepares to vacate its year-long chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be taken over by Ukraine on 1 January. On that same date, Ireland takes over the six-month presidency of the EU. In that role, he said, Ireland “wants to bring conflict resolution forward”, and improve EU capacities in the area.
Moving from one mandate to the other he said that the country would “prioritise conflict resolution” as one of its foreign policy aims. He said that the upcoming Ukrainian OSCE chairmanship has also shown “seriousness and determination” in maintaining continuity and co-operation between the OSCE and EU.
Ongoing conflicts in the EU’s neighbourhood region, in Armenia and Azebaijan, Georgia, and Moldova, add a certain amount of pressure and responsibility to European peace and security efforts. In the words of Gunnar Wiegand, the EEAS’ director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Regional Co-operation and the OSCE, stability in the region provides “a conducive environment for economic interests”. Stability can be achieved, he says, through existing frameworks, such as neighbourhood policy and the Eastern Partnership.
For this, and other reasons, the Ukraine “fully supports” European and Eurasian security through existing frameworks, says Andrii Deshchytsia, special representative of the upcoming Ukrainian OSCE chairmanship on protracted conflicts. As with the previous chairmanship, he believes that conflict resolution should be made a priority of EU foreign policy.
Also speaking on 10 December, he acknowledged that finding solutions to conflicts, such as the current dispute between Georgia and Russia over the territory of South Ossetia or the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, cannot be solved so readily, but hat Finding “new mechanisms and new approaches” is always possible.
“It takes some time for new structures to come about”, he said. “The OSCE has provided the groundwork, but we really need the proactive role of the state that can influence the processes”.
“Who can play this role. The EU, US, Commonwealth of Independent states or Russia? This very much depends on ambitions and attitudes”. He said that the EU is “the most suitable” for this role.
“No two conflicts are the same”, says Eamon Gilmore, “but there are often elements that are the same; for example, national identity, religion or the outcome of terrorism. There are a number of qualities for conflict resolution to start, and to be completed, but the biggest one is patience”.