Even though on the table for many years, the EU's comprehensive approach to security has gained much prominence and publicity since the mandate of the High Representative (HR) Catherine Ashton. In 2014 the Foreign Affairs Council acknowledged the HR's recommendations with regard to the further operationalisation of the comprehensive approach and asked her and the EU Commission to present an action plan on the implementation of the approach, which they did in 2015. From all this institutionalisation, how much has indeed been tested in practice? Research so far has examined the implementation of the approach in EU activities in Africa (e.g., in the Gulf of Eden, in the Sahel), yet little has been said about the more recent crisis in Syria and the resultant refugee crisis. This paper looks at whether the EU has made use of the whole spectrum of the comprehensive approach in order to cope with the Syrian crisis and the refugee crisis, arguing that this has not been the case. The first section of the paper briefly presents the latest institutional developments with regard to the EU's comprehensive approach to security and takes notice of its so far implementation. The second section examines the EU's reaction to the crisis in Syria and to the resultant refugee crisis, assessing to what extent they can be seen as part of the EU's comprehensive approach to security. The concluding remarks of the paper revisit the argument and check whether the current political realities in Europe's neighbourhood - the crisis in Syria and the refugee crisis – may dictate a new wave of institutional modifications so that the EU's comprehensive approach to security to be mostly effective in the context of EU foreign policy.
