Ten years after the inception of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) the European Union (EU) may boast several achievements in this domain, particularly through the launching thus far of 21 civilian and military missions abroad –something unthinkable not so long ago-, some in close cooperation with the UN. An instrument of its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the ESDP has helped to shape the singular nature of the EU as a global actor endowed with "soft power" or, hypothetically, also "hard power" tools for the purposes of maintaining international peace and security and/or defending its immediate interests and values. There is a growing security culture in Europe along with an increasing recognition of the need for the EU to play a more coherent, active and efficient role in the management of crises, as laid down in the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS).2 Relatedly, the EU must also be more effective and capable, in the words of the recent Report on the Implementation of the ESS
