Western European Union

The 9-star design that was used until 1993.

Treaty of Brussels

The Treaty of Brussels was signed by the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands on 17 March 1948. It was a mutual intergovernmental self-defence treaty which also promoted economic, cultural and social collaboration.

As a result of the failure of the European Defence Community on 23 October 1954 the WEU was established by the Paris Agreements with the incorporation of Italy and West Germany. On this occasion it was renamed the Western European Union. The signatories of the Paris Agreements clearly stated their three main objectives in the preamble to the modified Brussels Treaty:

• To create in Western Europe a firm basis for European economic recovery;
• To afford assistance to each other in resisting any policy of aggression;
• To promote the unity and encourage the progressive integration of Europe.

The defence efforts resulting from the Brussels Treaty took form as the Western Union Defence Organisation (see below).

The Brussels Pact had cultural and social clauses, concepts for the setting up of a 'Consultative Council'. The basis for this was that a cooperation between Western nations would help stop the spread of Communism.

Western Union Defence Organization

Transfers to the EU

Originally, under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).^[7]

For example, on 1 January 2002, the WEU's Security Studies Institute and the Satellite Centre were transferred to the EU and became the European Union Institute for Security Studies and the European Union Satellite Centre. Notably, the role given to the WEU in the Amsterdam Treaty, was removed by the Nice Treaty. The European Constitution was to have given the role of collective defence to NATO. The Treaty of Lisbon has provisions for cooperation between the EU and both NATO (including the Berlin Plus agreement) and the WEU.^[8][9] However the defence commitment, of Article 4 of the Brussels Treaty, has not been subsumed.^[10] Article 42(7) of the Treaty of the European Union, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, could be viewed as incorporating that defence commitment into the EU framework.^[11]

A summary of some of the moves towards a merger of the WEU into the EU:

• On 20 November 1999, EU.
• The Petersberg tasks, declared by the WEU in 1992, were incorporated in 1997 into the Treaty of Amsterdam of the EU, forming the basis of the Common Security and Defence Policy which frames a common policy to deal with humanitarian and rescue, peacekeeping and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.
• The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC), both established to function under the EU's CFSP pillar, are replacements to the Western European Union Institute for Security Studies and the Western Union Satellite Centre which had been established to function in connection to the WEU.

With the transfer of responsibilities, the WEU's Parliamentary assembly was urged to dissolve itself, as it had a mandate to supervise WEU politics, not the EU's CSDP politics. But the Assembly saw itself as playing an important role, particularly with greater right of scrutiny, membership, experience and expertise in defence policy. Therefore, it renamed itself the "Interim European Security and Defence Assembly" and urged the European Convention to include it as a second chamber within the EU's institutional framework. Hence it argued it could effectively scrutinise the CSDP, help improve EU-NATO relations and be more suited, being composed of national parliamentarians, to the intergovernmental style of the CSDP.

However with the European Constitution aiming to streamline and simplify the EU's foreign policy, for example combining the two main foreign policy posts, it was not seen as wise to then create a separate double legislature for the CFSP, instead, the European Parliament was granted greater scrutiny over foreign policy.^[12]

Abolition

In 2009, the

Western European Union topics Flag Assembly Western Union Defence Organization London and Paris Conferences Secretary-General Treaty of Brussels

• WEU official web site
• Historical fonds of the Western European Union at the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence
• Frozen version of the WEU Assembly's website
• History of NATO – the Atlantic Alliance - UK Government site
• WEU evolution: The presentation of the Eurocorps-Foreign Legion concept at the European Parliament in June 2003

External links

References

• Collective defence
• Collective security
• European Defence Agency
• European Union Institute for Security Studies
• Exercise Verity
• Flag of the Western European Union
• Franco-British Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty and Downing Street Declaration
• List of Secretaries General of the Western European Union
• List of military alliances
• Western Europe

See also

On 30 June 2011 the WEU officially ceased to exist. [15]