Western European Union Union de l'Europe occidentale | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954–2011 | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
 .svg) 1954–1990.svg) 1990–1995.svg) 1995–2011 | |||||||||
| Status | Alliance | ||||||||
| Capital | Brussels | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
| 23 October 1954 | |||||||||
• Cultural tasks transf. toCoE | 1 January 1960 | ||||||||
| 27 October 1984 | |||||||||
• Platform on European Security Interests | 27 October 1987 | ||||||||
| 19 June 1992 | |||||||||
• ESDI introduced | 4 June 1996 | ||||||||
| 1 December 2009 | |||||||||
• Abolition | 30 June 2011 | ||||||||
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| Today part of | European Union (CSDP) Council of Europe | ||||||||
TheWestern European Union (WEU;French:Union de l'Europe occidentale,UEO;German:Westeuropäische Union,WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded theWestern Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implemented theModified Brussels Treaty. During theCold War, theWestern Bloc included the WEU member-states, plus theUnited States and Canada, as part of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).[1]
The Cold War endedc. 1991, and at the turn of the 21st century, WEU tasks and institutions were gradually transferred to theEuropean Union (EU), providing central parts of the EU's new military component, the EuropeanCommon Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This process was completed in 2009 when a solidarity clause between themember states of the European Union, which was similar (but not identical) to the WEU's mutual-defence clause, entered into force with theTreaty of Lisbon. The states party to the Modified Treaty of Brussels consequently decided to terminate that treaty on 31 March 2010, with all the WEU's remaining activities to cease within 15 months.[2]On 30 June 2011, the WEU officially ceased to exist; with the European Union taking over its activities.[3]
The Treaty of Brussels was signed by theUnited Kingdom,France,Belgium,Luxembourg, and theNetherlands on 17 March 1948, establishing theWestern Union (WU), an intergovernmental defence alliance that also promoted economic, cultural and social collaboration.
The need to back up the commitments of theNorth Atlantic Treaty with appropriate political and military structures led to the creation of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In December 1950 the parties to the Treaty of Brussels decided to transfer the headquarters, personnel, and plans of theWestern Union Defence Organisation (WUDO) to NATO, whoseSupreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) took over responsibility for the defence ofWestern Europe.[4][5][6][7][8]
The establishment of NATO, along with the signing of a succession of treaties establishing theOrganisation for European Economic Cooperation (April 1948), theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organisation (April 1949), theCouncil of Europe (May 1949) and theEuropean Coal and Steel Community (April 1951), left the Treaty of Brussels and its Western Union devoid of authority.
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First, 9-star flag (1993–1995)The Western Union's foundingTreaty of Brussels was amended at the 1954Paris Conference as a result of the failure of theTreaty establishing the European Defence Community to gain French ratification: TheGeneral Treaty (German:Deutschlandvertrag) of 1952 formally named the EDC as a prerequisite of the end of Allied occupation of Germany, and there was a desire to include Germany in the Western defence architecture.[9]
The Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT) transformed the Western Union into the Western European Union, at which pointItaly andWest Germany were admitted. Although the WEU established by the Modified Brussels Treaty was significantly less powerful and ambitious than the original Western Union, German membership of the WEU was considered sufficient for the military occupation of Germany to end in accordance with the General Treaty.[9]
The signatories of the Paris Agreements stated their three main objectives in the preamble to the Modified Brussels Treaty:
The social and cultural aspects of the Treaty of Brussels were handed to the Council of Europe (CoE) to avoid duplication of responsibilities.[10] This, in addition to the existence of NATO, marginalised the WEU, and caused it to be largely defunct.
On 1 January 1960 in accordance with the decision taken on 21 October 1959 by the Council of Western European Union and with Resolution(59)23 adopted on 16 November 1959 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the WEU activities in social and cultural areas (Social Committee, Public Health Committee, Joint Committee on the Rehabilitation and Resettlement of the Disabled and Cultural Committee) were transferred to the Council of Europe which was already running programmes in these fields. The European Universities Committee (see CM(60)4; C(59)127 and CM(59)130) was transferred to the Council of Europe separately from the rest of WEU cultural activities.[11]
From the late 1970s onwards, efforts were made to add a security dimension to theEuropean Communities'European Political Cooperation (EPC), namely through the Genscher-Colombo Initiative.[12] Opposition to these efforts from Denmark, Greece and Ireland[13] led the remaining EC countries – all WEU members – to reactivate the WEU in 1984 by adopting theRome Declaration.[14] Prior to this point there had been minimal use of the provisions of the Modified Brussels Treaty.[15]
In 1992, the WEU adopted thePetersberg Declaration, defining the so-calledPetersberg tasks designed to cope with the possible destabilising of Eastern Europe. The WEU itself had no standing army but depended on cooperation between its members. Its tasks ranged from the most modest to the most robust, and includedhumanitarian, rescue andpeacekeeping tasks as well as tasks for combat forces incrisis management, includingpeacemaking.[16]
At the 1996 NATO ministerial meeting in Berlin, it was agreed that the Western European Union would oversee the creation of a European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI) within NATO structures.[17] The ESDI was intended as a European 'pillar' within NATO, partly to allow European countries to act militarily whereNATO wished not to, and partly to alleviate the United States' financial burden of maintainingmilitary bases in Europe, which it had done since the Cold War. The Berlin agreement allowed European countries (through the WEU) to use NATO assets if it so wished.
In 1998 the United Kingdom, which had traditionally opposed the introduction of European autonomous defence capacities, signed theSaint-Malo declaration. This marked a turning point as the declaration endorsed the creation of a European security and defense policy, including a European military force capable of autonomous action.[18] The declaration was a response to theKosovo War in the late 1990s, in which the EU was perceived to have failed to intervene to stop the conflict.[19]
Concerns were voiced that an independent European security pillar could undermine NATO; In response to St. Malo, the former US-Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright put forth the three famous D's: no duplication of what was done effectively under NATO, no decoupling from the US and NATO, and no discrimination against non-EU members such as Turkey.
TheTreaty of Amsterdam, which entered into force in 1999, transferred the WEU's Petersberg tasks to the EU, and stated that the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), replacing the WEU's ESDI, would be 'progressively framed' on the basis of these tasks.
In June 1999, theCologne European Council decided to incorporate the role of the WEU within the EU, effectively abandoning the WEU. The Cologne Council also appointedJavier Solana as theHigh Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to help progress both theCFSP and the CSDP. On 20 November 1999 Solana 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.
In 2002 the Berlin agreement from 1996 was amended with the so-calledBerlin Plus agreement, which allowed the EU to also draw on some of NATO's assets in its own peacekeeping operations.
Originally, under theAmsterdam Treaty, the WEU was given an integral role in giving the EU an independent defence capability, playing a major role in thePetersberg tasks; however that situation is changing. On 13 November 2000, WEU Ministers met inMarseille and agreed to begin transferring the organisation's capabilities and functions to the European Union, under its developingCommon Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) andCommon Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).[20]
For example, on 1 January 2002, the WEU's Security Studies Institute and the Satellite Centre were transferred to the EU and became theEuropean Union Institute for Security Studies and theEuropean Union Satellite Centre. Notably, the role given to the WEU in the Amsterdam Treaty, was removed by theNice Treaty. TheTreaty of Lisbon has provisions for cooperation between the EU and both NATO (including theBerlin Plus agreement) and the WEU.[21][22] However the defence commitment, of Article 4 of the Brussels Treaty, has not been subsumed.[23] 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.[24]
TheEuropean Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) andEuropean Union Satellite Centre (EUSC), both established to function under the EU's CFSPpillar, were both replacements to theWestern European Union Institute for Security Studies and theWestern 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 theEuropean 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 theEuropean 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, theEuropean Parliament was granted greater scrutiny over foreign policy.[25]
In 2009, theTreaty of Lisbon took over the WEU's mutual defence clause.[2] There was much discussion about what to do with the WEU following the introduction of Lisbon, including plans to scrap it.[26] On 30 March 2010 in a Written Ministerial Statement UK'sForeign Office MinisterChris Bryant gave notice that the UK intended to withdraw from the Western European Union within a year.[27] On 31 March 2010 theGerman Foreign Affairs Ministry announced Germany's intention to withdraw from the Modified Brussels Treaty.[28] That same year, 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.[29] On 30 June 2011 the WEU officially ceased to exist.
Since theend of World War II, mostsovereignEuropean countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (orpooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in theEuropean integration project or theconstruction of Europe (French:la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of theEuropean Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its presentorganizations,institutions, and responsibilities from theEuropean Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of theSchuman 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) | ||||||||||||||||||
| European Economic Community(EEC) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Schengen Rules | European Community (EC) | |||||||||||||||||
| TREVI | Justice and Home Affairs(JHA,pillar III) | |||||||||||||||||
 / North Atlantic Treaty Organisation(NATO) | [Cont.] | Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters(PJCC,pillar III) | ||||||||||||||||
  Anglo-French alliance | [Defence armhanded toNATO] | European Political Co-operation (EPC) | Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP,pillar II) | |||||||||||||||
 Western Union (WU) |  / Western European Union (WEU) | [Tasks defined following the WEU's 1984reactivationhanded to theEU] | ||||||||||||||||
| [Social, cultural taskshanded toCoE] | [Cont.] | |||||||||||||||||
| Council of Europe(CoE) | ||||||||||||||||||
Entente Cordiale S: 8 April 1904 | Davignon report S: 27 October 1970 | European Council conclusions S: 2 December 1975 | ||||||||||||||||
The WEU was headquartered inBrussels, with a staff of 65 and an annual budget of €13.4 million.[26] 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 the ambassadorial level.
AParliamentary Assembly (composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil 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.
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.[30]
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.[31] These agencies were taken over by theEuropean Defence Agency. Other transferred bodies include theInstitute for Security Studies and theSatellite Centre.
On 15 May 1995, the Council of Ministers of the WEU met in Lisbon. During this meeting a declaration of the creation of theEuropean 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.[32]
The Western European Union had ten member countries, six associate member countries, five observer countries and seven associate partner countries. On 14 June 2001, WEU Secretary General Solana stated that there was no foreseeable reason to change the status of the non member countries in the organisation.
All member countries of the WEU were also members of bothNATO and the European Union. These are the only nations that had full voting rights.
Belgium France
Germany
Greece (1995)
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal (27 March 1990)
Spain (27 March 1990) United KingdomRome, 1992: Observer countries were members of the European Union, but not of NATO.1
1 Denmark was an exception, being member of both. It has anopt-out from theTreaty of Maastricht (1992), so that it did not participate in theCSDP of theEuropean Union.
Rome, 1992:Associate membership was created to include the European countries that were members ofNATO but not of the European Union. Associate members Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined the EU in 2004.
Kirchberg, 1994:Countries that at the time were not part of either NATO or of the EU. All of the following nations joined both NATO and the EU by 2007.
The following missions, mainly in the Balkans, were deployed by the WEU:[33]
The WEU initially had cultural and social (non-military) structures and activities, but these were transferred to theCouncil of Europe in 1960.[34]
[...] the EU has taken over all activities of the former Western European Union which ceased to exist on 30 June 2011.
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Western Union (1948–1951/1954) |
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| European Defence Community (plan that failed in 1954) |
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| Western European Union (1954–2011) |
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European Union (1992–present) |
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