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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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competent authority for the EU external rela-
tions. So, for example, on migration matters,
the issue that has occupied the political agendas
of every EU member state over the last two
years, President of the Council Donald Tusk
called the Valetta Summit with the African
countries in late 2015 and President of the
Commission Jean-Claude Juncker called the
Brussels Summit with the Balkan countries most
affected by the refugee crisis.
There can be no credible external action
without a credible military response in the face
of certain threats. That is, without doubt, the
weakest aspect of the Union’s external action.
The EU has sent numerous peace missions
abroad, it has taken part in disarmament, con-
flict prevention and military assistance opera-
tions, but it still does not have a real operation-
al capacity that guarantees security. This aspect
continues to fall exclusively to the forces of the
member states and the coalitions that wish to
assemble. Since January 2007, the EU has had a
rapid reaction force made up of two tactical
groups of 1,500 troops each. However, there
has been a succession of crises in the EU’s sur-
roundings without them being used.
At a time of crisis like the present one, fol-
lowing Britain’s opting for Brexit, Foreign Policy
is one of the dimensions of the EU that can for-
tify fresh progress in European construction.
A geopolitical context marked by the
Islamic State group and migrations
The presence of Daesh in the Middle East:
the key to security and stability
The European Union had to contend with a dif-
ficult and complex geopolitical context over the
course of last year. Yet again, the main area of
concern for the Union remained the Middle
East. In that region lie the two main challenges
facing the EU in terms of foreign and security
policy: terrorism and the refugee crisis. The ter-
rorist challenge of the self-styled Islamic State,
established in Syria and Iraq and with branches
in other countries such as Libya, has become a
lasting and major threat to security on the
streets of Europe and the main source of insta-
bility in Europe’s vicinity. The terrorist attacks of
so called Islamic State or by individuals who had
sworn allegiance to it continued in 2016. France
and, to a lesser extent, Germany continue to be
the most directly affected countries.
In 2016, the attack using a truck to mow
down civilians in the city of Nice on 14 July was
the most serious of all, killing 85 and introduc-
ing a new terrorist method that was equally
brutal, but simple to organize. This type of at-
tack was copied in Germany, where on 20
December 12 people lost their lives in an identi-
cal manner at a Christmas market in Berlin. The
refugee crisis in the Union remains ongoing,
especially involving refugees from Syria.
However, the number dropped considerably.
Germany, the most affected country, saw arriv-
als fall by 69 % between 2015 and 2016.
Against the same backdrop, two very impor-
tant events are shifting the balance on the
ground in the war against Islamic State. On the
one hand, in December, Bashar Al Assad’s army
took Aleppo, a city razed to the ground in which
its 250,000 inhabitants had to survive for weeks
under intense artillery fire. On the other, in Iraq,
the army, along with Shiite and Sunni militias,
launched the battle for Mosul to regain control
of the Islamic State capital. Another important
milestone in the fight against Daesh was the
taking of Sirte, its stronghold in Libya, by the
country’s national unity government, on 6
December.