Timeline: Common Security and Defence Policy

The Treaty of Lisbon, signed in 2007, enters into force, renaming ESDP to Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). It provides for the creation of the European External Action Service. Commission delegations in countries outside the EU become EU delegations. 

• The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)

The European Defence Agency is established to support the member states and the European Council to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain ESDP.

• European Defence Agency

The summit in Brussels adopts a European Security Strategy. The aim of the document is to achieve a secure Europe in a better world, identify the threats facing the EU, define its strategic objectives and set out the political implications for Europe.

• European Security Strategy - A Secure Europe in a Better World

The 'Berlin Plus' arrangement is signed, allowing the use of NATO structures, mechanisms and assets to carry out  ESDP missions. 

• The Berlin Plus Agreement

At the European Council in Cologne, the EU 15 decide to reinforce the Common Foreign and Security Policy. 

• European Council conclusions, 3-4 June 1999

The European Council in Maastricht lays the foundations for a political Union with the creation of a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the beginnings of a common defence policy, as the second pillar of the Treaty of Maastricht.  

The text is signed in February 1992 and comes into force in November 1993.

• Treaty of Maastricht