In the second half of the first decade of the twenty-first century has become apparent stagnation in the development of defense policy of the European Union. This happened in the time when the EU was to realize its ambitious plans to develop the resources and capabilities to conduct a wide range of crisis management operations (Petersberg tasks). The stagnation of the CSDP contributed reduce the political importance of the EU in the international arena. Its causes were: an increase of disparities between the member states of the EU, strengthening by the Treaty of Lisbon the mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation; the financial crisis of 2008, and a general weakening of the international activity of the EU. Conditions for removal of the CSDP from stagnation stuck in the change in the security environment of the EU and in regulations of the Treaty of Lisbon. The main chance of reviving and strengthening the CSDP is not in its institutional development, but in the opportunity and conscious need to develop a new EU security strategy, as well as in strengthening the military capabilities and European defence sector, and also in increasing practical cooperation between the EU and NATO.