Abstract
"As a union of 25 States with over 450 million people producing a quarter of the world's Gross National Product (GNP), the European Union is inevitably a global player. It should be ready to share in the responsibility for global security and for building a better world". This quotation of Javier Solana, the European Union's high representative, is clearly a good illustration of the goals developed by the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (CFSP). As the second pillar of the European Treaty of Maastricht (1993) the CFSP is based on five main objectives, (renewed by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997)2 which are all linked with the establishment of security areas inside and outside the European Union. Moreover, this aim of security is also correlated with the principle of defense, which is developed and organized inside the European Union's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). These policies are based on the two principles of security and defense; and appear as instruments for the development of a European military commitment. Nevertheless, before talking about the European Union's military engagement in the Common Foreign and Security Policy, we must try to define precisely the two notions of security and defense. This attempt at providing definitions appears as an essential fact in order to determine the range and the scope of these two main European policies.
