The Empowerment of the EU's Second Pillar: A Retrospective View

The article analyses conditionalities which indicate a strengthening of the EU second pillar, as observed for the period between early 1990s and 2001. The first section addresses how institutional features of the EU second pillar impact on the perceptions about the political strength of CFSP and its effectiveness. The second examines the progress of its institutionalisation and how it contributed to enhance the EU external actorness. The third section looks at characteristics of the EU second pillar that allow recognising it as a normative framework. This pro-norm predisposition shapes the contents and actions in European foreign and security policy. It explains in which manner, the second pillar agenda is more inclined to address policy issues than to solve common problems through technical solutions, as found in the first pillar. The fourth section addresses CFSP as a process in the making, having evolved from provisions that only obliged member states to inform, to concertation of views and implementation of joint actions. The last section considers the incidence of europeanisation on foreign and security policy through formal and informal ways of incorporating policy guidelines.