Western European Union

Not to be confused with European Union.

Western European Union Union de l'Europe occidentale
1954–2011
Flag
Members • Associate members • Observers • Associate partners
Status	Defensive alliance
Capital	Brussels
Historical era	Cold War
• Treaty of Brussels	17 March 1948
• London and Paris Accords	21 October 1954
• Treaty of Lisbon	1 December 2009
• Abolition	30 June 2011
Succeeded by European Union
Today part of	European Union

The Western European Union (WEU; French: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO) was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels (1954), an amended version of the original 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU was established by seven Western European nations during the Cold War.

Since the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions have been transferred to the Common Security and Defence Policy which is being framed for the geographically larger and more comprehensive European Union. This process was completed in 2009, when a solidarity clause between the member states of the European Union which was similar (but not identical) to the WEU's mutual defense clause, entered into force with the Treaty of Lisbon. The states party to the Modified Treaty of Brussels consequently decided to terminate that treaty on 31 March 2010, with all the remaining WEU's activities to be ceased within 15 months. On 30 June 2011 the WEU was officially declared defunct.

Organisation

The WEU was headquartered in Brussels, with a staff of 65 and an annual budget of €13.4 million. It was composed of the Council of the WEU (the Council) and the Assembly of the WEU (the Assembly).

The WEU was led by a Council of Ministers, assisted by a Permanent Representatives Council on ambassadorial level. Social and cultural aspects of the Brussels Treaty were handed to the Council of Europe to avoid duplication of responsibilities within Europe.

A Parliamentary Assembly (composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) supervised the work of the Council, but it did not have any obligations on the Council. The Assembly of WEU was a consultative institution.

Western European Armaments Group

The "Independent European Program Group" (IEPG) was established as a forum for armaments cooperation in 1976 with the aim of creating a European Armaments Agency. Since 1993 the WEU armaments cooperation forum has been known as Western European Armaments Group (WEAG). Its membership reached 19 in 2000: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The body closed on 23 May 2005.

Western European Armaments Organisation

The Western European Armaments Organisation (WEAO) was intended as an Armaments Agency but operations were limited to a research cell. It provided support services in defence research and technology. It was created in 1996, and closed in August 2006. These agencies were taken over by the European Defence Agency. Other transferred bodies include the Institute for Security Studies and the Satellite Centre.

Eurofor

On 15 May 1995, the Council of Ministers of the WEU met in Lisbon. During this meeting a declaration of the creation of the European Operational Rapid Force (Eurofor) was made by France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Eurofor became operational in June 1998 as a task force of the Western European Union.

Participating states

The Western European Union had 10 member countries, 6 associate member countries, 5 observer countries and 7 associate partner countries. On 14 June 2001, then-WEU President Solana stated that there was no foreseeable reason to change the status of the non member countries in the organisation.

Member countries: (modified Brussels Treaty - 1954) All member countries of the WEU were also members of both NATO and the European Union. These are the only nations that had full voting rights. Belgium France Germany Greece (1995) Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Portugal (1990) Spain (1990) United Kingdom Observer countries: (Rome - 1992) Observer countries were members of the European Union, but not of NATO. 1 Austria (1995) Denmark 1 Finland (1995) Ireland Sweden (1995) 1 Denmark was an exception, being member of both. It has an opt-out from the Treaty of Maastricht (1992), so that it does not participate in the CSDP of the European Union. Thus in respect to the WEU it would have been more appropriate for it to be regarded as non-EU NATO member state (WEU associate status).

Associate member countries: (Rome - 1992) Associate membership was created to include the European countries that were members of NATO but not of the European Union. Associate members Poland, the Czech Republic & Hungary later joined the EU. Czech Republic (1999) Hungary (1999) Iceland Norway Poland (1999) Turkey (1992) Associate partner countries: (Kirchberg - 1994) Countries that at the time were part of neither NATO nor of the EU. All of the following nations have since joined both NATO and the EU. Bulgaria Estonia Latvia Lithuania Romania Slovakia Slovenia (1996)

History

Reconstruction of the organisation's rarely used 1949 flag.

The 9-star design that was used until 1993.

Treaty of Brussels

Main article: 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 defense 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.

Since the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.

Legend:   S: signing   F: entry into force   T: termination   E: expiry     de facto supersession   Rel. w/ EC/EU framework:    de facto inside    outside

European Union (EU)

[Cont.]

European Communities (EC)

(Pillar I)

European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom)

[Cont.]

/ / / European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

(Distr. of competences)

European Economic Community (EEC)

Schengen Rules

European Community (EC)

'TREVI'

Justice and Home Affairs (JHA, pillar II)

/ North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

[Cont.]

Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC, pillar II)

Anglo-French alliance

[Defence arm handed to NATO]

European Political Co-operation (EPC)

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP, pillar III)

Western Union (WU)

/ Western European Union (WEU)

[Tasks defined following the WEU's 1984 reactivation handed to the EU]

[Social, cultural tasks handed to CoE]

[Cont.]

Council of Europe (CoE)

Entente Cordiale S: 8 April 1904

Dunkirk Treaty S: 4 March 1947 F: 8 September 1947 E: 8 September 1997

Brussels Treaty S: 17 March 1948 F: 25 August 1948 T: 30 June 2011

London and Washington treaties S: 5 May/4 April 1949 F: 3 August/24 August 1949

Paris treaties: ECSC and EDC S: 18 April 1951/27 May 1952 F: 23 July 1952/— E: 23 July 2002/—

Protocol Modifying and Completing the Brussels Treaty S: 23 October 1954 F: 6 May 1955

Rome treaties: EEC and EAEC S: 25 March 1957 F: 1 January 1958

WEU-CoE agreement S: 21 October 1959 F: 1 January 1960

Brussels (Merger) Treaty S: 8 April 1965 F: 1 July 1967

Davignon report S: 27 October 1970

European Council conclusions S: 2 December 1975

Single European Act (SEA) S: 17/28 February 1986 F: 1 July 1987

Schengen Treaty and Convention S: 14 June 1985/19 June 1990 F: 26 March 1995

Maastricht Treaty S: 7 February 1992 F: 1 November 1993

Amsterdam Treaty S: 2 October 1997 F: 1 May 1999

Nice Treaty S: 26 February 2001 F: 1 February 2003

Lisbon Treaty S: 13 December 2007 F: 1 December 2009

Western Union Defence Organization

Main article: Western Union Defence Organization

Transfers to the EU

Originally, under the Amsterdam Treaty, the WEU was given an integral role in giving the EU an independent defence capability, playing a major role in the Petersberg tasks; however that situation is changing. On 13 November 2000, WEU Ministers met in Marseille and agreed to begin transferring the organisation's capabilities and functions to the European Union, under its developing Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

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. However the defence commitment, of Article 4 of the Brussels Treaty, has not been subsumed. 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.

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

• On 20 November 1999, Javier Solana, who is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU, was also appointed Secretary-General of the WEU. His being head of both organisations permits him to oversee the ongoing transfer of functions from the WEU to the 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.

Abolition

In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon took over the WEU's mutual defence clause. There was much discussion about what to do with the WEU following the introduction of Lisbon, including plans to scrap it. On 30 March 2010 in a Written Ministerial Statement UK's Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant gave notice that the UK intended to withdraw from the Western European Union within a year. On 31 March 2010 the German Foreign Affairs Ministry announced Germany's intention to withdraw from the Modified Brussels Treaty. During the Spanish Presidency of the WEU, on behalf of the 10 Member States of the Modified Brussels Treaty announced the collective decision to withdraw from the Treaty and to close the WEU organisation by June 2011. On 30 June 2011 the WEU ceased officially to exist.

See also

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

External links

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