The foreign action of the European Union in the protection of cultural heritage

Special reference to the Common Security and Defence Policy

Authors

  • Maria Julià Barceló Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rdce.71.03

Abstract

The protection of cultural heritage has recently been developed in the external action of the European Union (EU) through the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), with the aim of incorporating a holistic and overall vision in the protection of cultural heritage in pre-conflict, armed conflict, and post-conflict situations. For this reason, and from 2017, with the EUAM Iraq mission, the Union has introduced for the first time in a civilian mission the mandate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (PCH), although for the moment on a residual basis, and linked to the more generic mandate of fight against organized crime, and oriented to the Security sector reform (SSR). Anyway, the adoption of the Civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Compact (2018), has led – based on the lessons learned with the EUAM Iraq mission – that the European External Action Service (EEAS), together with the services of the European Commission, are working on a concept of PCH that can be introduced, together with teams of experts in PCH, in future European peacekeeping missions.

Published

2022-04-19

Issue

Section

STUDIES