Fighting Piracy and Armed Robbery in the XXI Century:Some Legal Issues Surrounding the EU Military OperationAtalanta

This paper aims at analysing some legal issues related to the EU Military Operation Atalanta. After a thorough review of the numerous legal sources existing both within and outside the EU legal system and regulating various aspects of the Operation, the paper then concentrates on the content of the international agreements signed by the EU with Somalia and other neighbouring Countries in order to fully operationalise the mission. These Agreements will be examined against the background of existing international, and in particular Human Rights, obligations which are incumbent on the EU and its members States. In the well known 2003 document “A Secure Europe in a Better World, European Security Strategy” , and in the following Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy Providing Security in a Changing World adopted in Brussels on December 11, 2008, the EU leaders undertook a formal commitment: “We need to continue mainstreaming human rights issues in all activities in this field, including ESDP missions, through a people-based approach coherent with the concept of human security” . Operation Atlanta takes its place within a brand new trend of ESDP/CSDP operations: it is therefore of utmost importance to conduct it in full compliance with the basic values and principles inspiring the European Security Policy as well as the European Security Strategy . This paper will try to clarify if and to what extent the design and implementation of Operation Atlanta is coherent with the above mentioned commitments and values expressed by the EU.