The European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) calls on the European Union (EU) to increase investment in conflict prevention and peacebuilding (CP-PB). The EU has played a critical role in fostering global stability through its support to civil society and locally led initiatives to prevent violence and promote peace. Preventing and addressing violent conflict is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic and economic necessity:
Strategic: The EU’s role as a leading donor and actor in conflict-affected regions is vital for maintaining its influence internationally amid rising challenges. Today’s global landscape is marked by the highest levels of active conflicts since the end of the Second World War. Insufficient peacebuilding efforts have left many conflicts unresolved, with reliance on military responses proving ineffective. Investing in CP-PB fosters stability for all. Even distant conflicts have domestic repercussions, fuelling political polarization and social tensions. These trends highlight the urgent need for cooperative, comprehensive strategies to address interconnected global challenges.
Economic: Preventing violent conflicts makes economic sense. The cost of violence is substantial, equivalent to a significant portion of global economic activity. Today’s conflicts are disrupting critical supply chains, forcing the displacement of millions of people, exacerbating impacts of the climate crisis, and creating conditions for transnational crime and armed groups to thrive. A significant portion of the world’s population live in countries affected by violent conflict, with these countries the furthest behind in progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN and the World Bank have demonstrated that investments in prevention yield significant returns in terms of avoiding conflict-related costs, with every unit invested in peacebuilding saving multiple times that amount in costs due to conflict.
Specifically, we call for the EU to:
- Uphold, at a minimum, the total value of the budget allocation to external action from the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to post-2027.
- Increase the budget allocations for the Thematic Programme on Peace, Stability, and Conflict Prevention.
- Include conflict prevention and peacebuilding as objectives in all External Financing Instruments (EFIs).
- Increase meaningful engagement with and budget allocations to civil society.
- Ensure that all EU external action is conflict- and gender-sensitive.