Peace and security
Addressing causes of conflicts (poverty, disease, lack of governance and rule of law) is an essential first step for the EU to help promote peace and development.
EU development work uses non-military means to support the peaceful resolution/prevention of armed conflict through negotiations, demobilisation, demilitarisation, etc. It also supports:
- good policing
- the rule of law (availability of judges, lawyers, etc.)
- civil administration (establishing a group of experts),
- civil protection (experts and emergency teams which can be mobilised at very short notice).
Conflict prevention is backed up through:
- trade policy
- development policy
- cooperation and association agreements
- social and environmental programmes
- humanitarian assistance (ECHO)
- cooperation on justice and home affairs.
In post-conflict states, the EU supports disarmament and arms-control measures in the framework of the UN Conference on Disarmament, relating to:
- small arms and light weapons
- conventional weapons
- biological weapons
- chemical weapons
It also supports international efforts to ensure nuclear safety.