Analysis – the EU and maritime power projection
With another renewal of the mandate of the long-running EU maritime security mission in the waters off the Horn of Africa and Arabian Peninsula, the EUNAVFOR deployment looks to have entered a new era.
Launched in December 2008, the EU tasked its Operation Atalanta mission off the Horn of Africa and around the southern flank of the Arabian Peninsula with bringing the threat posed by Somali pirates under control while simultaneously protecting World Food Programme vessels transiting those dangerous waters.
Fast forward 12 years and Operation Atalanta, or EUNAVFOR Somalia as it also known, once again had its mandate renewed by the European Council, finalising the process in late December 2020.
Also renewed at the same time were the two pillars that join Operation Atalanta in its security mission to the region, that
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