Welcome to the CoE Knowledge Hub!

The first ever Youth Action Plan provides a political framework and operational roadmap for a strategic partnership with young people in the EU's external action. Its main priority is to ensure youth ownership of EU external action and thus accelerate progress towards sustainable development, equality and peace, in line with international commitments such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development or the UN Agenda for Youth, Peace and Security.

These guidelines are a follow-up to the 2020 Climate Change and Defence Roadmap and aim to provide a basic toolbox for the integration of environmental and climate aspects into civilian CSDP missions. Their purpose is manifold: to raise awareness in missions, to optimise the use of resources and energy in missions, to integrate environmental security and environmental crime considerations into mission mandates and, in the long term, to provide host states with best practices in greening the security sector.

This report assesses the progress made five years after the first ever baseline study on integrating human rights and gender equality into the European Union’s CSDP. Its purpose is to provide data to inform missions' and operations’ planning and review processes.

These implementing guidelines are replacing the existing guidelines from 2017 and aim to provide guidance and orientation to the implementation of the CSDP Training Policy, as well as an overview of all the Training Requirement Analyses (TRA) conducted so far.

The Strategic Compass, approved by the Council of the European Union in March 2022, establishes a common strategic vision for the EU’s security and defence and sets concrete and wide-ranging objectives to achieve these goals in the coming 5-10 years.

The strategy and action plan stems from the Compact commitment to increase women's representation in civilian CSDP missions. It defines expected outcomes and sets specific targets in a given time frame and identifies four areas of strategic engagement, accompanied by actions and means to monitor progress towards the set targets. It also includes a comprehensive overview of the state of play. The document is useful for anyone interested in the developments in women's equal participation and gender balance in civilian CSDP missions, but it's particularly useful for Member States working on policy-making and implementation on Women, Peace and Security and gender equality more generally.

Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants (DDR) plays an essential role in stabilisation and building lasting peace. DDR is thus an integral part of the EU’s contribution to the non-reoccurrence of violence and to broader stabilisation. This joint communication presents the updated EU DDR policy, drawing on the Global Strategy, the Integrated Approach, and the new EU-wide security sector reform (SSR) framework. It proposes means to support DDR in affected countries and regions in a coordinated, conflict-sensitive manner and in line with international law.

In this document, the Council of the European Union reaffirms, three years after the adoption of the Civilian CSDP Compact, its commitment to strengthening the civilian branch of the Common Security and Defence Policy.

This EU policy document establishes the priorities for continuing the UN-EU partnership on peace operations and crisis management. It presents eight priorities and proposes action points to operationalise them. Overarching challenges are identified, such as climate change or disruptive technologies.

In the context of the COVID-19 crisis and its effects on the EU and the internal market, these council conclusions aim at paving the way to establish a better prepared responses to future crises of various nature.