The EU Electoral Observation Missions: A Discreet Tool for Crisis Management

The European Union (EU) has a valuable tool for conflict prevention and resolution, which is neither its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), still at an embryonic stage after more than fifteen years, nor the painful crisis management missions its deploys in this framework. The EU has another asset, this time more discreet: the Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs), partly sent in post-conflict situation or in unstable countries (mainly in Africa). As a post-national actor, the Union disposes here of a real lever in the field of foreign policy, one which traditional European diplomacies cannot even aspire to. An evident value-added for the EU… which is also troubling for its member States, still so jealous about their national sovereignty.