A series of changes have marked the international community over the past and the beginning of this century. Globalization and interdependence among European countries has also had an effect on the security and defense position. Member states had to take serious political, economic, and military steps to become, but also remain, a community that could match the economic power of the United States. Only a strong institutional connection can lead them to that goal. In the first part it will present the beginnings of European security and defense policy, a modification of the Brussels Treaty that provided the basis for the establishment of the first international organization, the Western European Union. Attempts and failures to establish a defense community and the beginning of political cooperation in the field of security and defense, which laid the foundations of Foreign and Security Policy, within which the basis for a common security and defense policy was created. In the second part it will present the institutionalization, creation of security and defense policy, operationalization, adoption of concrete acts related to European security and the creation of the European Defense Agency, which is a major step in developing the capacities on which the common security and defense policy is based. With the development of the Armed Forces, the Eurocorps, the Rapid Reaction Corps and the EU Battlegroups, the European Union has shown that it is capable and equipped to carry out a range of Petersburg tasks, as evidenced by security operations and missions that have been and continue to operate. They are listed and briefly explained in the fifth part. The last part will present the Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy, which is the basis for the ambitions for the EU to achieve strategic autonomy. Based on the Strategy and its Implementation Plan, concrete measures and financial resources have been adopted within the PESCO projects and the European Defense Fund to help Europe meet its defense capability objectives.