The EU and Conflict Prevention – What Next After the German Presidency?
This session took place a few months after the end of the German EU Presidency and shortly after the publication of the German Guidelines’ Implementation Report. It provided a platform for dialogue between German and European policymakers and civil society experts to discuss lessons learned in order to strengthen the EU’s role as a peace provider.
Main Questions
- What should be the EU’s top priorities with regard to conflict prevention over the next few years?
- How should the EU define the ‘Peace’ pillar of the HDP nexus?
- How can the EU improve its knowledge management and institutional learning?
Key Theses, Thoughts and Ideas
The German Guidelines process called for new thinking and doing in order to achieve a truly integrated approach to conflicts and crises. For this, there is a need for cultural change, integration, coordination, co-creation and cross-learning across and between organisations.
Even though the EU has a lot of policy commitments on conflict prevention already, there are different understandings of the EU’s added value as a global peace actor which can affect EU action. There were discussion on how a possible European Consensus on Peace, may help in this regard.
Many analytical tools and early warning mechanisms are available for conflict prevention. Above all, it is now necessary to transform the analysis into action and bridge the gap between policy and implementation. The key lies in the political willingness to act.
