Building on the EU Global Strategy for foreign and security Policy put forward in June 2016, High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini presented in November 2016 an Implementation Plan focusing on Security and Defence, to raise the level of ambition of the European Union’s security and defence policy.

Based on this, Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers adopted Council conclusions on 14 November 2016, which set a new level of ambition for the EU’s security and defence policy and provided guidance on the actions needed to fulfil these ambitions.