The EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, says "it is up to the peoples of countries" with failed states "to change their regimes." The EU is "not in that business of regime change" by the use of force.
In an interview with The Irish Times he denied that this was implied in sections of the document entitled A Secure Europe in a Better World, adopted at the summit here as the basis on which an EU security doctrine will be elaborated over the next six months.
The document says certain countries have "have placed themselves outside the bounds of civilised society. Some have sought isolation. Others persistently violate norms of domestic governance or of international behaviour. It is desirable that such countries should rejoin the international community. Those who are unwilling to do so should understand that there is a price to be paid, including in their relations with the European Union."
New security threats include regional conflicts, international terrorism and bad governance leading to failed states associated with corruption and crime. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is accepted as a critical problem.
Mr Solana says there are many instruments available to the EU short of the use of force to effect change.
"It can be sanctions. It can be conditionality. And I think good governance. For us good governance is the basic ingredient of this new security. For that you can use pre-emptive action. You have to say No to those who don't behave and say Yes to those who do behave.
"What do we do with those who behave? We can give more, you can have more, etc. This is the philosophy that we are trying to apply. We are applying that in the Balkans and we continue to do it.
"We think that it is up to the people of the countries to change their regimes. What we call pre-emptive engagement, we try to avoid a state that may be at risk of bad government and corruption to become a failed state, so that it doesn't happen. You know that may happen very close to us. Look at Moldova, look at some of the countries in the Balkans."
He said this is "the kind of philosophy we have, to act only in the world with only the elements we do have."
He continued: "We are not a country with an army. We are not. Look at the United States. That is a country. We are not. We are a group of countries attempting to pull together military capabilities for peacekeeping, not for going to war. To make peace, to reconstruct a country, to work in that direction. This is our philosophy in an effective multilateral framework.
"We praise the United Nations and all the treaties which exist and all the regimes which exist and we want them to be implemented.
"It is not good if you have regimes that break the rules. They have to be punished in the many manners in which you can punish them. Someone has to pay a price in relation to the European Union if they do break the rules of the game. What is the price? Not to get help with the reconstruction of the country, not giving money to the government."
The summit adopted the Solana document as the basis for drawing up a more elaborated EU security doctrine. Its central emphases on multilateralism and the UN were widely welcomed. They will be pursued at next week's summit in Washington.
The Middle East is recognised as a central EU interest. The Greek prime minister, Mr Simitis, and his foreign minister, Mr George Papandreou, emphasised that the crisis over Iraq which divided the EU has been overcome by renewed emphasis on EU foreign and security policy.