New Civilian CSDP Compact Adopted

On May 22, 2023, EU member states adopted the new Civilian CSDP Compact. With the new Compact - closely linked to the Strategic Compass of 2022, and building on the first Compact of 2018 - the EU aims to strengthen its civilian missions within the framework of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). ZIF, which has been providing personnel for these missions for years (currently over 60 experts) and prepares and trains for these missions in European training partnerships, welcomes the Compact as a key building block for the future of civilian CSDP.

The Executive Director of ZIF, Dr. Astrid Irrgang, emphasizes that "the Compact is a direct mandate for all member states to jointly strengthen the missions by fulfilling concrete commitments and deliverables by the end of 2027." In this regard, analogous to the Strategic Compass, the new Civilian CSDP Compact rests on four pillars: "ACT," "INVEST", "PARTNERS," and "SECURE"

The new Compact provides for the establishment of an actual headquarters for civilian missions, the deployment of up to 200 experts in the field within 30 days, the achievement of at least 40 percent women in civilian CSDP by the end of 2027, and a return of the secondment rate to over 70 percent - and even to 100 percent for key positions in missions. In addition, the issues of environmental and climate security are to play a greater role in missions at various levels in the future. In the area of mediation, the Compact proposes to make all EU instruments on mediation more available for CSDP missions in order to achieve a truly integrated approach.

An important innovation is the introduction of a knowledge management system and the commissioning of external evaluations of the impact of current and previous civilian missions.

The next step is for the member states to implement the new EU directives - an initial review is already scheduled for the fall as part of the Spanish EU Council presidency.