The Western European Union was reactivated in 1984 with a view to developing a “common European defense identity” through cooperation among its members in the security field and strengthening the European pillar of the North Atlantic Alliance.
In August 1987, during the Iran-Iraq War, Western European Union experts met in The Hague to consider joint action in the Gulf to ensure freedom of navigation in the oil shipping lanes of the region; and in October 1987 WEU countries met again to coordinate their military presence in the Gulf following attacks on shipping in the area.
Meeting in The Hague in October 1987, the Ministerial Council of the Western European Union, made up of Foreign and Defense Ministers of the member countries, adopted a “Platform on European Security Interests” in which they affirmed their determination both to strengthen the European pillar of NATO and to provide an integrated Europe with a security and defense dimension. The Platform defined the Western European Union’s relations with NATO and with other organizations, as well as the enlargement of the WEU and the conditions for the further development of its role as a forum for regular discussion of defense and security issues affecting Europe.
Following the ratification of the Treaty of Accession signed in November 1988, Portugal and Spain became members of the Western European Union in 1990 in accordance with the decisions taken in 1987 to facilitate WEU enlargement. A further step was taken in November 1989 when the Council decided to create an Institute for Security Studies, based in Paris, with the task of assisting in the development of a European security identity and in the implementation of The Hague Platform.
A number of decisions were taken by the European Council at Maastricht on 9-10 December 1991 on the common foreign and security policy of the European Union and by the member states of the Western European Union on the role of the WEU and its relations with the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance (set out in the Maastricht Declarations). These decisions were welcomed by the North Atlantic Council when it met in Ministerial Session on 19 December 1991. They included extending invitations to members of the European Union to accede to the WEU or to seek observer status, as well as invitations to European member states of NATO to become associate members; agreement on the objective of the WEU of building up the organization in stages, as the defense component of the European Union, and on elaborating and implementing decisions and actions of the Union with defense implications; agreement on the objective of strengthening the European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance and the role, responsibilities and contributions of WEU member states in the Alliance; affirmation of the intention of the WEU to act in conformity with positions adopted in the Alliance; the strengthening of the WEU’s operational role; and the relocation of the WEU Council and Secretariat from London to Brussels. A number of other proposals were also examined including a new role for the WEU in armaments cooperation.
On 19 June 1992, the Foreign and Defense Ministers of WEU member states met near Bonn to strengthen further the role of the WEU and issued the “Petersburg Declaration”. This declaration set out, on the basis of the Maastricht decisions, the guidelines for the organization s future development. WEU member states declared their preparedness to make available military units from the whole spectrum of their conventional armed forces for military tasks under the authority of the WEU. These tasks, the so-called “Petersburg missions”, consisted of humanitarian and rescue tasks; peacekeeping tasks; and tasks of combat forces in crisis management including peacemaking. In the Petersburg Declaration, WEU members pledged their support for conflict prevention and peacekeeping efforts in cooperation with the CSCE and with the United Nations Security Council.
The first application of provisions set out in the Maastricht Treaty with regard to the WEU (Article J.4.2 of the Treaty of European Union) occurred in November 1996. At that time the Council of the European Union adopted a decision requesting the WEU to examine urgently how it could contribute to the EU’s humanitarian efforts in support of the refugees and displaced persons in the Great Lakes region in Africa. WEU-EU cooperation was also undertaken in relation to the planning of evacuation operations, supporting African peacekeeping efforts, and mine clearance.
Provisions established in accordance with the Maastricht Treaty were subsequently re-examined at the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) in 1996/97. At its Ministerial meeting in Madrid in 1995, the WEU agreed on a specific “WEU contribution to the European Union Intergovernmental Conference of 1996″. This document assessed the organization s development since Maastricht; set forth several options for the future EU-WEU relationship; and listed a number of agreed principles and guidelines to assist the IGC on European defence arrangements. It was formally submitted by the WEU to the Council of the European Union.
As a result of the Inter-Governmental Conference on 16and 17 June 1997 in Amsterdam, EU Heads of State and Government agreed on revisions to the Maastricht Treaty with implications for the future Common Foreign and Security Policy of the Union and EU-WEU relations. In particular, the Petersburg missions, as defined by the WEU at the Ministerial meeting in June1992, were included in the Treaty of Amsterdam.
The Amsterdam Treaty stipulates that the WEU is an integral part of the development of the European Union, providing the latter with access to an operational capability, notably in the context of the Petersburg missions. The WEU should support the EU in framing the defense aspects of the common foreign and security policy; and the EU should, accordingly, foster closer institutional relations with the WEU “with a view to the possibility of the integration of the WEU into the EU, should the European Council so decide”.
The Amsterdam Treaty also states that the “Union will avail itself of the WEU to elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defense implications”. The European Council has the competence to establish guidelines in respect of the WEU for those matters for which the EU would avail itself of the WEU. In such cases, all EU member states, including those who are not full members of the WEU, are entitled to participate fully in the tasks in question. In the same vein, the EU Council, in agreement with the institutions of the WEU, would adopt the necessary practical arrangements to allow all EU member states making a contribution to participate fully and on an equal footing in planning and decision-taking in the WEU.
The Protocol to Article 17 of the Amsterdam Treaty states that the EU will draw up, together with the WEU, arrangements for enhanced cooperation between them within a year from the entry into force of the Treaty. The WEU, in its “Declaration on the Role of Western European Union and its Relations with the European Union and with the Atlantic Alliance”, adopted by WEU Ministers on 22 July 1997, took note of the parts of the Treaty of Amsterdam pertaining to the WEU. The WEU Declaration also set out the formers understanding of its role and relations with the EU as well as with the Atlantic Alliance. In its introduction, it states that the WEU is an integral part of the development of the European Union, providing it with access to operational capability, notably in the context of the Petersburg missions, and is an essential element of the development of the ESDI within the Alliance, in accordance with the Paris Declaration and with the decisions taken by NATO Ministers in June 1996 in Berlin.
Since Amsterdam and the WEU Declaration of 22 July 1997, further steps have been taken in developing WEU-EU relations. In September 1997 the WEU Council introduced measures to harmonize as much as possible the six-monthly presidencies which rotate between members countries in both the WEU and the EU. At their meeting in Erfurt in November 1997, EU Ministers endorsed a decision enhancing the operational role of WEU observer countries, in line with the provisions contained in Article 17.3 of the Amsterdam Treaty. These arrangements, aimed at facilitating EU-WEU cooperation in crisis management, will come into effect upon entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty.
Since 1991, the WEU has developed a framework under which an increasing number of European countries have become associated with its activities. In the second WEU Maastricht Declaration of 1991, the WEU invited states which are members of the EU to accede to WEU, on conditions to be agreed in accordance with Article XI of the modified Brussels Treaty, or to become observers. Simultaneously, other European members of NATO were invited to become associate members of WEU “in a way which will give the possibility to participate fully in the activities of WEU”. The Petersburg Declaration defined the rights and obligations of those states which are members of the European Union and NATO, as future members, observers or associate members. At the Rome Ministerial meeting on 20 November 1992, WEU members agreed to enlarge the organization and invited Greece to become its tenth member, subject to parliamentary ratification. Greece joined the WEU formally in 1995. Iceland, Norway and Turkey, as member countries of NATO, were granted Associate Member status; and Denmark and Ireland, as members of the European Union, became Observers. Following their accession to the European Union on 1 January 1995, and after completion of parliamentary procedures, Austria, Finland and Sweden also became WEU Observers.
On 9 May 1994, at their meeting in Luxembourg, the WEU Council of Ministers issued the “Kirchberg Declaration”, according the nine Central and Eastern European countries which had signed “Europe Agreements” with the EU the status of “Associate Partners” (as distinct from the Associate Membership of Iceland, Norway and Turkey). Slovenia became the tenth Associate Partner country in 1996.
The Kirchberg meeting thus created today’s system of variable geometry with three different levels of membership, as well as observer status. The Western European Union thus embraces the following categories of membership and affiliation :
+ Members (all WEU members are also members both of NATO and of the EU);
+ Associate Members (NATO but not EU members);
+ Associate Partners (neither NATO nor EU members), and;
+ Observers (members of NATO and/or the EU).
Further to the decisions taken at Maastricht and Petersburg, steps have been undertaken to develop the WEU’s operational capabilities in order to provide the organization with the necessary tools to undertake the Petersburg missions. In this context, a WEU Planning Cell was set up, under the authority of the WEU Council, to carry out planning for possible WEU operations and to establish and to keep up-to-date the list of Forces Answerable to WEU (FAWEU). The WEU has no standing forces or command structures of its own. Accordingly, the military units and command structures designated by WEU members and associate members can be made available to WEU for its various possible tasks. They include both national units and several multinational formations, such as the Eurocorps; the Multinational Division Central; the UK/NL Amphibious Force; Eurofor and Euromarfor; the Headquarters of the First German-Netherlands Corps; and the Spanish-Italian Amphibious Force.
Other measures aimed at developing the WEU’s operational capabilities include the establishment of the Satellite Centre in Torrejon, Spain, inaugurated in April 1993, to interpret and analyze satellite data for the verification of arms control agreement, crisis monitoring and management in support of WEU operations; the creation of a Situation Centre (which became operational in June 1996) to monitor crisis areas designated by the WEU Council and the progress of WEU operations; and the creation of a Military Delegates Committee and the reorganization of the military structure of the WEU headquarters in 1998, in accordance with decisions taken by WEU Ministers at their meetings in Paris and Erfurt in May and November of 1997.
Cooperation between the Western European Union and NATO has underpinned the process of the reactivation of the WEU and has become progressively more intensive and more frequent. On 21 May 1992, the Council of the Western European Union held its first formal meeting with the North Atlantic Council at NATO Headquarters. The Secretary General of the WEU now regularly attends ministerial meetings of the North Atlantic Council, and the NATO Secretary General is invited to WEU ministerial meetings. The North Atlantic and WEU Councils meet four times a year, with the possibility of further meetings if necessary. A Security Agreement has been agreed between NATO and WEU to facilitate the exchange of classified information. Other examples of enhanced practical cooperation include WEU access to NATO’s integrated communications system on the basis of a NATO-WEU Memorandum of Understanding; and regular consultations between the secretariats and military staffs of both organizations.
An important further step towards closer cooperation between NATO and WEU was taken during the January 1994 NATO Summit in Brussels. The 16 member countries of the Alliance gave their full support to the development of a European Security and Defense Identity which would strengthen the European pillar of the Alliance while reinforcing the transatlantic link and would enable European Allies to take greater responsibility for their common security and defense. They expressed their support for strengthening this European pillar of the Alliance through the Western European Union, which was being developed as the defense component of the European Union. In order to avoid duplication of capabilities, NATO agreed to make its collective assets available, on the basis of consultations in the North Atlantic Council, “for WEU operations undertaken by the European Allies in pursuit of their Common Foreign and Security Policy”. In addition, Heads of State and Government endorsed the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTFs) as a means of facilitating contingency operations. They directed that the concept should be implemented in a manner that provides separable but not separate military capabilities that could be employed by NATO or the WEU and would respond to European requirements and contribute to Alliance security. At the same time, they reaffirmed that the Alliance is the essential forum for consultation among its members and the venue for agreement on policies bearing on the security and defense commitments of Allies under the Washington Treaty.
At their meetings in June 1996, Foreign and Defense Ministers decided that, as an essential part of the internal adaptation of NATO, a European Security and Defense Identity should be built within NATO. This would enable all European Allies to make a more coherent and effective contribution to the missions and activities of the Alliance as an expression of their shared responsibilities; to act themselves as required; and to reinforce the transatlantic partnership. Taking full advantage of the CJTF concept, this identity would be based on sound military principles, would be supported by appropriate military planning and would permit the creation of militarily coherent and effective forces capable of operating under the political control and strategic direction of the WEU. At the Summit meeting in Madrid in July 1997, NATO Heads of State and Government welcomed the major steps taken on the creation of the European Security and Defense Identity within the Alliance, implementing the important political decisions made by Foreign and Defense Ministers in June 1996, and tasked the North Atlantic Council in Permanent Session to complete its work expeditiously in cooperation with WEU.
The WEU has also contributed to efforts undertaken by the international community in the context of the Yugoslav and Albanian crises, both by mounting WEU operations and by conducting a joint operation with NATO to support the efforts of the United Nations to end the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia.
In July 1992, the member countries of the WEU decided to make available naval forces for monitoring compliance in the Adriatic with UN Security Council Resolutions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Similar measures were also taken by the North Atlantic Council in a Ministerial Session held on the margins of the OSCE Summit in Helsinki on 10 July 1992 in coordination with the WEU.
At a joint session on 8 June 1993, the North Atlantic Council and the Council of the Western European Union approved the concept of combined NATO/WEU embargo enforcement operations under the authority of the two Organizations. A single commander was appointed to head the combined NATO/WEU task force in the Adriatic. The implementation of this decision is described in more detail in the section Evolution of the Conflict.
On 5 April 1993, the WEU Council of Ministers decided to provide assistance to Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania in their efforts to enforce the UN embargo on the Danube. The assistance took the form of a civilian police and customs operation coordinated with other organizations and in particular with the EU and the CSCE. Following the termination of the UN sanctions, both the Adriatic and Danube operations were ended.