Political and Security Committee

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The Political and Security Committee ( PSK for short , until 1999: Politisches Komitee , PK or POCO for short; often CoPS, Comité politique et de sécurité ) is a body of the European Union in which high-ranking officials from the foreign ministries or the permanent members meet once a month Meet representations of the member states in Brussels. According to Article 38 of the EU Treaty , the PSC supports the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the European Union . It monitors the international situation in the field of foreign and security policy and, on its own initiative or on request, sends statements to the Council of the EU . The committee can also be entrusted with the control and management of crisis management operations. The German representative in the PSK is currently Ambassador Michael Flügger . The Austrian representative in the PSK is currently Ambassador Alexander Kmentt .

The Political Committee until 1999 (PK)

The establishment of a Political Committee was already foreseen for the first time in the Davignon Report , which in 1970 marked the beginning of European Political Cooperation (EPC) - i.e. the coordination of the foreign policy of the EC member states. The PC should act as a hinge between the political level and the expert groups in the field of foreign policy. It gathered the Political Directors, i. H. the heads of the political departments, from the foreign ministries of the member states and the Director General of the Commission for External Political Relations or one of the four responsible Directors General.

The work of the Political Committee consisted of coordinating and monitoring EPC activities and preparing the meetings of the Council of Ministers . The planned four meetings per year quickly became more; Finally, a monthly rhythm (with the exception of the holiday month of August) developed for the meetings. In addition, there were emergency meetings which could be convened within 48 hours (Part II, paragraph 13 of the 1981 London Report). However, it was not until 1986 that the Political Committee was incorporated into the treaties of the European Communities with Article 30, Paragraph 10c of the Single European Act .

The Political and Security Committee (PSK) since 1999

In the later treaty reforms of the European Union, the Political Committee was anchored in the EU Treaty , in which European Political Cooperation was expanded to include the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The Treaty of Amsterdam , which was concluded in 1997 and came into force in 1999, also gave the PC new tasks and has now been renamed the Political and Security Committee. In the Treaty of Nice it was finally given its form that is still valid today.

In the new provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty, the members of the PSK were initially not explicitly named. This should relieve the political directors of the foreign ministries and allow other officials to represent them on routine issues. However, the text of the treaty initially also left open whether the deputies were officials from the foreign ministries of the capitals or members of the permanent representations of the member states in Brussels. This ambiguity can also be attributed to the disagreement between the governments: while strictly intergovernmental governments tended to support the sending of members of the foreign ministries, the more community-open countries supported an upgrading of the permanent embassies, in order to bring them closer to the EU institutions and overall more coherence and enable continuity. The second group finally prevailed in the Treaty of Nice of 2000; it was determined that the members of the PSC consist of senior officials or ambassadors from the EU countries who are based in the permanent representations.

The PSK thus consists of two formations: firstly, the alternate composition or "Brussels Formation", which is made up of high officials or ambassadors and has met twice a week in Brussels since the Swedish EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2001 (with further meetings if necessary); secondly, the “capital city composition”, in which - as before in the PC - the political directors of the foreign ministries of the member states meet. In this capital city composition, two to four meetings are currently held every six months; there are also votes in smaller groups.

There is no clear division of labor between these two formations. In political practice, the Brussels formation deals primarily with routine matters, while the Political Directors concentrate on the core issues of the CFSP . In the hierarchy of the individual foreign ministries, the representatives of the PSC in Brussels are subordinate to both the Political Director and the Permanent Representative of the Government. The Nikolaidis group (similar to the Mertens or Antici group in Coreper) serves to prepare the PSK meetings .

Since the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the PSC is no longer chaired by the Council Presidency, which changes every six months, but by a representative of the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy .

tasks

The tasks are:

  1. Preparation of the Council of Ministers meetings ("[...] contributes to the definition of policies at the request of the Council or of its own accord through opinions addressed to the Council"),
  2. Monitoring the international situation in the area of ​​the CFSP,
  3. Monitoring the implementation of agreed policies,
  4. political control and strategic direction of crisis management operations, under the responsibility of the Council,
  5. on the authority of the Council in the event of a crisis, decision-making regarding political control and strategic management of operations.

In point 1) the competences of the PSC overlap with those of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), in which the heads of the permanent representations of the EU member states meet to prepare Council meetings. During the period of European Political Cooperation, a division of labor had been established according to which the Council of Ministers' meetings on foreign policy were prepared by the PSC and on general matters of the EC by COREPER. But even here there were incoherences and contradictions. As a result of the EU Treaty, COREPER was finally to become responsible for the preparation of the common foreign and security policy from 1992 , which led to further conflicts of competence in the preparation of the meetings of the General Affairs and External Relations Council .

It was only after several attempts in 1993 that the division of tasks between PSK and COREPER could be specifically determined: The PSK retained its special role, but has to share it with COREPER in order to guarantee a uniform institutional framework. This gain in influence on the part of the permanent representations, however, did not meet with unreserved approval, especially among the political directors.

Tasks 4) and 5) of the PSC were only contractually stipulated in the 2000 Treaty of Nice . They represent an extension of powers through which the PSK can take on management and control tasks in the event of a crisis. The background to this is the development of the common European security and defense policy , in which the PSK is to act as a management body vis-à-vis other military bodies. However, the crisis powers of the PSK require a corresponding express authorization by the Council of the EU , which continues to be the most important decision-making body.

Formations

In the administrative apparatus of the European Union, the PSK is particularly active in the following areas:

  • in the EU Military Committee (EUMC) , through which a link is established with the High Command (EUMS) and the EU's CSDP operations
  • in the committee responsible for the civil law aspects of crisis management (CivCom), which decides in particular on the deployment of non-military forces outside the EU (police forces, customs, civil protection forces, etc.)

The representation of the EU member states via the PSK is guaranteed by the following bodies:

  • the RELEX group, which brings together the 27 foreign policy advisors to the Permanent Representatives to the EU
  • the geographically arranged working groups in which the permanent representatives in Brussels or the capital city representatives are gathered. These groups decide in cooperation with the European Commission on civil and military matters from the areas of the first pillar or the so-called " merged titles " (primarily development cooperation ):
  1. COASI for affairs with Asia and Oceania ,
  2. COELA for candidate countries or countries that are in the process of accession to the EU ,
  3. COEST for non-European countries from Eastern Europe or Central Asia ,
  4. COLAT for Latin America ,
  5. COMAG for the Maghreb and the Mashrek ,
  6. COMEM for the Middle East and the Arabian and Persian Gulf ,
  7. COSCE for the OSCE ,
  8. COTRA for transatlantic affairs ( USA and Canada ),
  9. COTEL for communication ,
  10. COWEB for the Western Balkans .
  • The independent working groups of the PSK include:
  1. COARM in the field of conventional arms exports ,
  2. COADM in the field of administration and training,
  3. COCON for consular activities
  4. CODUN for disarmament ,
  5. COHOM for human rights ,
  6. COJUR for international law matters,
  7. COMAR in the field of maritime law ,
  8. COMEP, Ad Hoc Committee on the Middle East Peace Process ,
  9. CONOP on the non-proliferation of weapons,
  10. CONUN for relations with the United Nations ,
  11. COPLA for analysis and forecasting,
  12. COPRO for the diplomatic protocol ,
  13. COSEC in security matters,
  14. COTER to fight terrorism.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union, Brussels
  2. ^ Austrian Foreign Ministry. Representation in Brussels. Who are we?
  3. ^ Le groupe RELEX sur le site du Ministère française des affaires étrangères et européennes
  4. ↑ Diplomatie.be, Guide de la PESC (PDF), p. 54

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