The Common Security and Defence Policy within the framework of Common Foreign and Security Policy

This chapter analyses the specific legal framework governing the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This is set out in the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force on 1 December 2009. Both the Lisbon Treaty and the process which led to its drafting and entry into force are underpinned by a strong emphasis on the façade of the Union's constitutional architecture. The CSDP is central to this process not only in the light of its topicality and the importance attached to it by the EU leaders as a matter of principle, but also given its position, the disappearance of which the main political actors are keen to stress. The analysis in this chapter suggests that all the exercise in constitutional reordering does not alter the unique position of CSDP within the new configuration.