The planned end of WEU (and its assembly)?

(BRUSSELS2) The will displayed by the European Parliament to put an end to the Brussels Treaty and to the activity of the WEU Assembly (1) — and the initiative of its rapporteur and chairman of the defense sub-committee, Arnaud Danjean, who has never hidden his feelings (2), seems to be fully shared diplomatically. " All the signatories of the Treaty (3) agree on this point explains a diplomat. " With the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon, there are now all the instruments (the solidarity clause, the possibility of associating national parliaments, etc.) within WEU and it is no longer necessary to maintain a structure which does not include all EU member states ».

Haste...British. " We did not talk about it at the meeting of foreign ministers explained, as if with regret,
Bernard Kouchner. France wanted, in fact, a retreat in good order, thoughtful, concerted. However, this beautiful plan is disrupted by a calendar problem: the British government (Labour) enters into current affairs quickly (before the legislative elections). And he will therefore no longer be able to take major initiatives. If there is a denunciation, on the British side, it must be made very quickly, in the days to come.

Rule. According to the Brussels Treaty, denunciation can be made 50 years after the signing of the Treaty (the Brussels Treaty was signed in 1948, amended by the Paris Agreements in 1954). It must be brought to the attention of the Belgian government, depositary of the Treaty. And it is still a year before it becomes effective. A series of questions will still have to be settled, such as the fate of staff or the devolution of property belonging to the organization.

End of a process? This would thus be the end of a process begun with the Treaty of Maastricht, which had the EU equipping itself with an embryo of foreign and security policy, then the Treaty of Amsterdam, which had seen the European Union equip itself more specifically of a European defense security policy and made concrete with the Treaty of Nice. Part of the structures and concepts of WEU then shifted towards the EU: the Petersberg missions (taken up in the Treaty of Amsterdam), the General Staff, the Military Committee (in 2000), the satellite center of Torrejon or the Institute for Security Studies (in 2003). But this is not the first time that there has been talk of closing WEU either. Ironically, it is the state probably the least disposed to closing the WEU chapter which is today the first gravedigger.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) The European Parliament wants the end ofWEU
(2) Should I remove theWEU ? 
(3) The following are members of the Treaty: Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom