The best practices and lessons learnt through the Plan of Action for enhancing CSDP support for UN peacekeeping adopted in July 2012 by the Council of the European Union, was the focus of a high-level international workshop held at the Farnesina and organized by MAECI within the framework of the Italian EU Presidency.
The event offered an opportunity for the UN to share its peacekeeping experiences of recent years and to outline proposals for confronting today’s challenges to peacekeeping. Particular attention was given to concerns such as technological innovation, training and the broader participation of EU Member States in UN missions. The resulting reflections will be useful to the purposes of the review process announced by UN S-G Ban Ki-moon for 2015.
Significant examples of EU-UN collaboration
Taken into special consideration was the UN/EU collaboration in Mali and the Central African Republic, as well as the experience gained on the UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon (under the command of Brigade General Luciano Portolano, and where Italy has over 1,000 troops deployed). Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East are indeed the areas in which the EU and the UN have collaborated most extensively on confronting crises.
The event at the Farnesina took place within the broader framework of an initiative organised by Italy and Germany that will continue with a seminar in Berlin on consistency in mission planning and conclude with a conference in Brussels in December.
