This article proposed human security as the basis of both a discursive/ linguistic shift and a change in operating principles. Although these are crisis management, civil-military coordination and conflict prevention in European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), Europeans in 27 different member states need to find common meanings that express the unique character of European Common Foreign And Security Policy (CFSP)/ESDP and enable them to project the European Union's (EU) personality on the world stage. This paper examined what a human security approach means in discourse and practice, to show that it is not simply a label serving the EU's own image as a security actor, but allows the EU to put in place a coherent and innovative policy tailored to the complex needs of contemporary global security.