The European Union and the new European security architecture

[From the Introduction]. In December 1990, the twelve members of the European Community (EC) embarked on an ambitious project of "Political Union (EPU) designed in priority to progressively unify their foreign and security policies. This initiative came as a response to East European developments, with the need to face up to two main challenges: German unification, and demands for economic and political support from countries of Eastern Europe freeing themselves from communism. German unification required an acceleration of European Economic and Monetary Union and spurred the search for a political structure that would prevent a German drift toward the East. East European demands put the EC under such pressure that they threatened to jeopardize the EC economic integration effort. A framework had to be created to deal with them in a cohesive manner.