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Between Scylla and Charybdis: Assessing Portugal’s Approach to the Common Foreign and Security Policy

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07036330701252144

1477-2280

Laura C. Ferreira‐Pereira,

European Socioeconomic and Political Studies

Abstract This article provides a portrait and evaluation of the Portuguese EU policy in the specific domains of security and defence. Based on the negotiation strategy adopted by Lisbon’s representatives during the revision process of the successive treaties, it will attempt to illuminate Portugal’s commitment to the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) which tends to be conditional upon the respect of four major precepts: the state sovereignty core, the primacy of NATO, the ‘petits pas’ method and inclusiveness. The central claim is that the Portuguese ESDP policy has been largely typified by ambivalence: while reasons related to state security have hampered governmental elite to embrace an all‐encompassing involvement, politico‐diplomatic and economic imperatives have pushed it to deepen de facto engagement in order to position the country at the heart of political integration dynamics. Key Words: PortugalEuropean Unionsecurity defence policyCFSPAtlanticismtransatlantic relationssmall states Acknowledgement The author is indebted to all those at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and Parliament who agreed to be interviewed and gave their valuable time to share in‐depth knowledge about Portuguese evolving participation in the CFSP/ESDP dynamics. Without the first‐hand information provided by them a substantial part of this study could not have been made. Notes 1. This close relationship with the USA came to be founded mostly on a bilateral defence agreement signed back in 1951 which allowed for the access of the former to military facilities in the Azores. 2. These encompass Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, Cape Verde, Guinea‐Bissau, Brazil, Macao and East Timor. 3. See, for example, the articles by Thorhalsson (Citation2006) and Tiiilikainen (Citation2006) published in the Journal of European Integration’s special issue of March 2006. 4. The work of the IGC on the Political Union was formally launched in December 1990. 5. The evolution of the British position became patent in the Anglo‐Italian paper issued on 4 October 1991. 6. Interview with a Portuguese representative at the IGC of 1991, Lisbon, July 2005. 7. Interview with a top‐ranking diplomat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, June 2005. 8. Interviews with diplomats involved in Maastricht Treaty negotiations, June and July 2005. 9. Interviews in Lisbon, July 2005. 10. The Portuguese contingent engaged in IFOR, between 1995 and 1996, amounted to 924 personnel. See Rocha (Citation2000) and Cutileiro (Citation2000). 11. António Guterres (Cavaco’s Silva successor) took power following the Socialist Party’s victory in the 1995 October general elections. 12. Interview at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, June 2005. 13. Ibid. 14. This proposal, put forward by Lena Hjelm‐Wallén and Tarja Halonen, was entitled ‘The IGC and the Security and Defence Dimension Towards an Enhanced EU Role in Crisis Management, Memorandum from Finland and Sweden’. 15. Interview with a top‐ranking diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, June 2005. 16. See Article J.7.2 of the Amsterdam Treaty (Hill & Smith Citation2000, 174). 17. Interview with a top‐ranking diplomat at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, June 2005. 18. Ibid. 19. Interview with a top‐ranking diplomat, 2005. 20. Ibid. 21. Data provided by the Ministry of Defence, July 2005. 22. Interview with a top‐ranking military official, July 2005 [author’s emphasis]. 23. Commencing on 15 December 2003, this operation was supposed to last one year. 24. Data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 2005. 25. This operation took place in the sequence of a specific request made to France by the United Nations. The total number of men involved were 2,200, 1,785 of which were French. 26. Interview with a diplomat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, June 2005. 27. Data provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in May 2005. 28. In each of these two operations, Portugal participated with two military officers appointed by the Ministry of Defence. 29. Interview with a diplomat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, June 2005 [authors’ emphasis]. 30. This draws on an argument of general character elaborated by João de Vallera (Citation2002, 138). 31. Interview with a Portuguese representative at the Convention, June 2005 [author’s emphasis]. 32. This came to be included in the Article I‐41° no 7 of the Constitutional Treaty. 33. Here the author draws on comments made by the Prime Minister, Durão Barroso, following his Address at the National Defence Institute, Lisbon, 4 June 2004.