Seventh COST Action ENTER Policy Brief published: The EU’s Commitment to and Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect. The Way Forward

The EU is a staunch supporter of the principle of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), which was unanimously adopted by the UN Member States in the World Summit in October 2005. The EU’s support of the principle has been constantly growing rather than diminishing over the last one and a half decades. Nevertheless, its track record in terms of R2P’s implementation has been mixed. This policy brief asks how to bridge the gap between the EU’s commitment to R2P and its practices. Accordingly, it suggests that the EU should adopt and internalise a holistic approach, and apply R2P in-depth. This requires the inclusion of the protection of refugees fleeing mass atrocity crimes in the implementation of R2P in depth, as well as consolidating diverging positions of the EU Member States and pursuing the internalisation of a common protection approach under R2P. Last but not least, it is imperative for the EU to learn from the experiences of other regional organizations and recognize the history, specificities and needs of each region to implement R2P successfully.

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