Background The Treaty of Brussels was signed by the
United Kingdom,
France,
Belgium,
Luxembourg, and the
Netherlands on 17 March 1948, establishing the
Western Union (WU), an intergovernmental defence alliance that also promoted economic, cultural and social collaboration. The need to back up the commitments of the
North Atlantic Treaty with appropriate political and military structures led to the creation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In December 1950 the parties to the Treaty of Brussels decided to transfer the headquarters, personnel, and plans of the
Western Union Defence Organisation (WUDO) to NATO, whose
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) took over responsibility for the defence of
Western Europe. The establishment of NATO, along with the signing of a succession of treaties establishing the
Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (April 1948), the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (April 1949), the
Council of Europe (May 1949) and the
European Coal and Steel Community (April 1951), left the Treaty of Brussels and its Western Union devoid of authority.
1954–1984: General dormancy First, 9-star flag (1993–1995) The
General Treaty () of 1952 formally named the European Defence Community as a prerequisite of the end of the Allied occupation of Germany, and there was a desire to include Germany in the Western defence architecture. As a result of the failure of France to ratify the
treaty establishing the Community, the
Treaty of Brussels was amended at the 1954
Paris Conference. The Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT) transformed the Western Union into the Western European Union, at which point
Italy and
West Germany were admitted. Although the WEU was significantly less powerful and ambitious than the original Western Union, German membership was considered sufficient for its occupation to end in accordance with the General Treaty. 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 the Western European Union, and Resolution(59)23, adopted on 16 November 1959 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the WEU's 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, already running programmes in these fields. The European Universities Committee (see CM(60)4; C(59)127 and CM(59)130) was separately transferred to the Council.
1984–1998: Revival From the late 1970s onwards, efforts were made to add a security dimension to the
European Communities'
European Political Cooperation (EPC), namely through the Genscher-Colombo Initiative. Opposition to these efforts from Denmark, Greece and Ireland led the remaining EC countries – all WEU members – to reactivate the WEU in 1984 by adopting the
Rome Declaration. Prior to this point there had been minimal use of the provisions of the Modified Brussels Treaty. , where the Petersberg tasks were defined in 1992. In 1992, the WEU adopted the
Petersberg Declaration, defining the so-called
Petersberg 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 included
humanitarian, rescue and
peacekeeping tasks as well as tasks for combat forces in
crisis management, including
peacemaking. 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. The ESDI was intended as a European 'pillar' within NATO, partly to allow European countries to act militarily where
NATO wished not to, and partly to alleviate the United States' financial burden of maintaining
military 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.
1998–2009: Transfer of tasks to the EU In 1998 the United Kingdom, which had traditionally opposed the introduction of European autonomous defence capacities, signed the
Saint-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. The declaration was a response to the
Kosovo War in the late 1990s, in which the EU was perceived to have failed to intervene to stop the conflict. Concerns were voiced that an independent European security pillar could undermine NATO; In response to St. Malo, the former US-Secretary of State
Madeleine 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.
Javier Solana (September 1999) The
Treaty 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, the
Cologne European Council decided to incorporate the role of the WEU within the EU, effectively abandoning the WEU. The Cologne Council also appointed
Javier Solana as the
High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to help progress both the
CFSP 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-called
Berlin Plus agreement, which allowed the EU to also draw on some of NATO's assets in its own peacekeeping operations. 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
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. The
European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and
European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC), both established to function under the EU's CFSP
pillar, were both 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.
2009–2011: Dissolution In 2009, the
Treaty of Lisbon took over the WEU's mutual defence clause. On 31 March 2010 the
German Foreign Affairs Ministry announced Germany's intention to withdraw from the Modified Brussels Treaty. 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. On 30 June 2011 the WEU officially ceased to exist.
Timeline ==Organization==