Western European Union

Encyclopedia : W : WE : WES : Western European Union

Western European Union
Union de l'Europe Occidentale

Flag of the Western European Union

Membership 10 member states
6 associate member states
5 observer countries
7 associate partner countries
Formation
- Signed Treaty of Brussels
- 17 March 1948
The Western European Union (WEU) is a partially dormant European defence and security organization, established on the basis of the Treaty of Brussels of 1948 with the accession of West Germany and Italy in 1954. It should not be confused with the European Union (EU).

Contents

1 The Treaty of Brussels
2 President
3 Eurofor
4 Participating States
5 See also
6 External links

The Treaty of Brussels

Main article: Treaty of Brussels 1948.

The Treaty of Brussels was signed by the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands on March 17, 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 October 23, 1954 the WEU was established with the incorporation of the then West Germany and Italy. Its two stated aims were:

to afford assistance to each other in resisting any policy of aggression
to promote unity and to encourage the progressive integration of Europe

The WEU is led by a Council of Ministers, assisted by a Permanent Representatives Council on ambassadorial level. A Parliamentary Assembly - rather unique for an intergovernmental organisation - would oversee the work of the Council. Most of the WEU functions are in the process of being merged into the EU. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council (composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), is fearful for its future existence, and has been lobbying for itself to be recognised as the "European Security and Defence Assembly". This would allow it to function within the ESDP structures within the European Union.

Some of the moves that have taken place and indicate the partial merger of the WEU into the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU have been the following:

On November 20, 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 European 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.

Supposedly full merger was to occur in 2000; however, as of 2004 the WEU is still alive and much European military planning takes place within its constituent cells. New York University's book, Defending Europe, paints the situation as a "revival of the WEU" rather than a shutting down of it. On June 14, 2001, Solana stated that there was no foreseeable reason to change the status of the non member countries in the organisation.

President

The WEU has a rotating 6 month presidency. When the President of the Council of the EU belongs to a country that is also a member of the WEU then that member is also the President of the WEU, and when a non member heads the EU a different member state takes over the presidency. From January 1 2005 until July 1 2005 Luxembourg was President. It was then handed over to the UK, which unusually continued as President for a second term on January 1, 2006 when non-member Austria took over the EU presidency.

Eurofor

Eurofor[link] (European Operational Rapid Force) is a task force of the Western European Union that became operational in June 1998.

On 15 May 1995, the Council of Ministers of the WEU met in Lisbon. Declaration of EUROFOR's creation was made by France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Participating States

The Western European Union has 10 member countries, 6 associate member countries, 5 observer countries and 7 associate partner countries. They are as follows:

Member countries: (modified Brussels Treaty - 1954)
All of them being members of both NATO and the European Union. These are the only nations that have full voting rights.

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Observer countries: (Rome - 1992)
Observer countries are members of the European Union, but not of NATO. ¹

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} (1995) ¹ Denmark is 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 ESDP 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. Since then, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have also joined the EU.

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Associate partner countries: (Kirchberg - 1994)
Countries that were part of neither NATO nor of the EU. Since then most of the following countries have joined both, with the exception of Bulgaria and Romania who have so far only joined NATO, but are candidates of EU-membership, expected to join on January 1, 2007.

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} (1996)

External links

[WEU official web site]
[Assembly of The Western European Union]
[History of NATO – the Atlantic Alliance] - UK Government site