This paper aims at analyzing the emergence of European militaries capabilities – understood as a tool incorporated in a wider security continuum – as the expansion of European bureaucratic struggles towards new arenas. Drawing on sociological work in eu studies and in International Relations, it presents an account of the eu-un cooperation as a central locus enabling the construction of csdp. The argument is articulated through a dual-dynamic of internationalization and autonomization, and on the role played by the former High Representative for cfsp, Javier Solana, and his staff.