Neofunctionalism and EU external policy integration: the case of capacity building in support of security and development (CBSD)

Abstract

Under the umbrella of Capacity Building in Support of Security and Development (CBSD), the EU provides equipment and infrastructure to the armed forces of partner countries. The 2017 reform of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) to implement CBSD represents a remarkable integrative step at the interface of EU security and development policy. This article explains the IcSP reform through a neofunctionalist lens. It argues that the extension of the Commission's competences in EU security affairs can be explained by the interaction of functional and cultivated spillover pressures. Functional discrepancies between the CSDP framework and EU development policy created strong pressures for further integrative steps. Moreover, the Commission exerted strong pressures for adopting its proposal for implementing CBSD through the IcSP by drawing on a combination of strategic coalition-building, bargaining tactics and community framing. The case illustrates neofunctionalism's potential to explain external policy integration.

National disaster risk assessments in Europe. How comparable are they and why?

“…Kleine, 2014) in the European integration literature. The current study thus confirms the previous empirical observations in such fields, inter alia, as the environment, regional development, research and technological development (Pollack, 1994), critical infrastructure protection (Pursiainen, 2009), energy (Maltby, 2013), civil security (Kirchner et al, 2015), Common Foreign and Security Policy (Bergmann, 2019; Riddervold, 2016; Riddervold & Rosén, 2016), and health policy (Greer & Löblová, 2017).…”

From ESDP to Today’s New Initiatives: Does Neofunctionalism Work?

“…Capacity Building in Support of Security and Development (CBSD), launched in 2017, is another initiative for further integration and coherence in the security and defense area. Through CBSD, the EU aims to fund the equipment and infrastructure of the armed forces of the EU Member States (Bergmann, 2019). As a result of the decision of all EU institutions, the CBSD was put into practice under the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP), which is a financial instrument of the development policy.…”

“…By doing this, the EU will provide training, equipment, and infrastructure to the armed forces under the decision-making of the European Commission. Therefore, the Commission accessed the supranational power in EU's security affairs and opened a way to use the EU's budget in funding the armed forces (Bergmann, 2019). Same year, the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) was also founded.…”

“…Therefore, the Commission accessed the supranational power in EU's security affairs and opened a way to use the EU's budget in funding the armed forces. Therefore, the CBSD initiative fits neofunctionalism's functional and cultivated spillover logics (Bergmann, 2019).…”

Development Policy under Fire? The Politicization of European External Relations*

“…In the past few years EU decision‐making processes and the normative underpinnings of EU external relations have been subject to intense debates in the EP, the Council, the media and the streets (Balfour et al, 2016; Thomas, 2017). This has been visible with regard to the EU's stance in the UN Human Rights Council (Klose et al, 2017), sanctions towards Russia (Sjursen and Rosén, 2017), fisheries and trade agreements (De Bièvre et al, 2020; Young, 2016; Zimmermann, 2017), security issues (Bergmann, 2019; Hegemann and Schneckener, 2019; Wagner et al, 2017), trade policy (Gheyle and De Ville, 2017), humanitarian aid (Dany, 2015), and the EU's relations with China (Mohan, 2018). Scholars have suggested that these trends point to the increasing politicization of EU external relations (Costa, 2018; Wagner, 2017).…”