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Role of preventive diplomacy in tackling frozen conflicts around the world – missed opportunity or change for the future?

TA-9-2024-0034 · P9_TA(2024)0034 · PE752.799

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Parliament's recommendation to the Council, Commission and VP/HR sets out how the EU should run preventive diplomacy against frozen conflicts. It asks for a comprehensive EU strategy, a stronger conflict Early Warning System, more resources and better coordination with the UN and other partners. It calls for gender-responsive conflict analysis, women's participation in early warning, protection of at-risk groups, cultural diplomacy and cultural heritage protection, and climate diplomacy as part of prevention. It asks for accountability of EU special representatives and envoys, including parliamentary scrutiny and confirmation of appointments by Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. It proposes new structures: a Council working party on prevention and mediation, Peace and Conflict Advisors in delegations, a Peace and Prevention Hub in the EEAS, and a European Civil Peace Corps. It reviews lessons from past EU mediation in the Sahel, Western Balkans, South Caucasus, Cyprus, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Moldova and Ukraine, and asks for more funds for conflict prevention under the NDICI – Global Europe thematic programme.

Key points

  1. Recommends that the Council, Commission and VP/HR link EU internal and external security, place fundamental and human rights at the core of preventive diplomacy, and update conflict prevention tools to new threats.
  2. Asks them to act as guarantor of EU-brokered ceasefire agreements and as an equidistant, values-based mediator, respecting the sovereignty of countries.
  3. Calls for integrating preventive diplomacy into structural prevention such as political agreements, national dialogues, transitional justice and truth and reconciliation commissions, and for including cultural heritage in crisis management.
  4. Urges member states to set aside individual interests and build joint capacity, and asks for clear rules on external representation by the VP/HR, the President of the Commission and the President of the European Council.
  5. Wants closer collaboration with Parliament, annual assessments to Parliament on preventive diplomacy, and reviews of the EU conflict Early Warning System.
  6. Calls for better understanding of local and cultural contexts, a more diverse diplomatic corps, tailored state-building assistance, and consultation with local civil society.
  7. Asks the European Council and EEAS to strengthen EU visibility and cultural diplomacy, protect cultural heritage in conflicts, and support creative sectors and cultural exchanges in non-EU countries.
  8. Demands a gender-responsive approach: protect women's and girls' rights, ensure gender equality among special representatives and envoys, integrate gender-responsive conflict analysis, and include women in early warning.
  9. Calls for using education diplomacy, notably Erasmus+, with student exchanges and visits to sites of historical memory, and for regional conflict analyses to prevent spillovers.
  10. Asks for a proactive, well-resourced Early Warning System involving EU delegations, cooperating with INTCEN, the EEAS Crisis Response Centre and the Satellite Centre, and with the UN and NATO.
  11. Calls for assessing special representatives' results, regular reports to Parliament, and confirmation of appointments of special representatives, envoys and ambassadors only after a positive assessment by Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
  12. Asks for lessons learnt from past actions, expanded civilian and military mission toolboxes, an EU envoy for Cyprus, a mechanism to verify Serbia-Kosovo agreements, and action on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Israel-Palestine and Colombia.

Who is affected

  • The Council, Commission and VP/HR, who are asked to act on the recommendations.
  • EU member states, asked to set aside individual interests and build joint prevention capacity.
  • The EEAS and EU delegations, asked to gain staff, resources, focal points and training.
  • EU special representatives and envoys, subject to assessment, reporting and parliamentary scrutiny.
  • At-risk groups in conflicts: women, children, people with disabilities, political prisoners, human rights defenders, journalists and LGBTI people.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 870 970 044 allocated for 2021-2027 to the peace, stability and conflict prevention thematic programme.
  • Only 13 %-18 % of that thematic programme will go to conflict prevention.
  • Global funding for conflict prevention and peacebuilding is at a 15-year record low.
  • EU contributions cover 30 % of the UN's costs and 33 % of expenses for UN peacekeeping missions.
  • Nine EU special representatives have been appointed for unstable and conflict-affected regions.
  • The EU-mediated Ceasefire Agreement between Russia and Georgia is dated 12 August 2008.
  • Hamas's attack against Israel is dated 7 October 2023.
  • The Commission's recommendation on Bosnia and Herzegovina is dated 8 November 2023, with accession negotiations to open before March 2024.

Legal basis: Article 21(2) of the Treaty on European Union.