The European Union was organized in 1993 basically as an answer to the Common Market and to promote European interests rather than solely English ones. A committee of the European Union that began at the inception of the European Union is the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy Committee.
With the ever increasing insistence of its members that the EU react to crisis situations in the world has instituted a new institution in the European Council to deal with world crisis affairs. The new committee is the Rapid Reaction Mechanism that works as a special body in the Commission.
The EU made its first attempt at responding to a crisis in the Balkans in a military and humanitarian manner has met with mixed reactions by the United Nations of which all 28 members of the European Union are also members. The EU is trying to act in Afghanistan with non military but with humanitarian motives to insure that the rule of law applies even to citizens of a country that is the battle ground of foreign attackers.