Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
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Conventional long name | Western European UnionUnion de l'Europe occidentale |
Common name | WEU |
noautocat | yes |
Status | International organisation |
Status text | Defensive alliance |
Continent | Europe |
Era | Cold War |
Event start | Treaty of Brussels |
Event end | Termination |
S1 | European Union |
Flag s1 | Flag of Europe.svg |
Flag | Flag of the Western European Union |
Image map caption | Members • Associate members • Observers • Associate partners |
Capital | Brussels |
Event start | London and Paris Accords |
Year start | 1954 |
Date start | 21 October |
Event end | Abolition |
Year end | 2011 |
Date end | June |
Event1 | Treaty of Lisbon |
Date event1 | 1 December 2009 |
Event pre | Treaty of Brussels |
Date pre | 17 March 1948 |
Since the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions have been transferred to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) which is being framed for the geographically larger and more comprehensive European Union (EU). This process was completed in 2009, when a solidarity clause between the member states of the European Union which was similar (but not identical) to the WEU's mutual defense clause, entered into force with the Treaty of Lisbon. The states party to the Modified Treaty of Brussels consequently decided to terminate that treaty on 31 March 2010, and the WEU's activities were decided to cease by July 2011.
{| |- | valign=top | Member countries: (modified Brussels Treaty - 1954)
All of them were members of both NATO and the European Union. These are the only nations that had full voting rights.
Observer countries: (Rome - 1992)
Observer countries were members of the European Union, but not of NATO. 1
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 CSDP 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). | valign=top | 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 & Hungary have also joined the EU.
Associate partner countries: (Kirchberg - 1994)
Countries that at the time were part of neither NATO nor of the EU. All of the following nations have since joined both NATO and the EU.
The defense efforts resulting from the Brussels Treaty took form as the Western Union Defense Organisation (see below).
The Brussels Pact had cultural and social clauses, concepts for the setting up of a 'Consultative Council'. The basis for this was that a cooperation between Western nations would help stop the spread of Communism. The Treaty of Brussels was amended by the Protocol signed in Paris at the conclusion of the London and Paris Conferences on 23 October 1954, which added West Germany and Italy to the Western Union. On this occasion it was renamed the Western European Union.
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 European Constitution was giving the role of collective defence to NATO. 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.
A summary of some of the moves towards a merger of the WEU into the EU:
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.
The WEU is led by a Council of Ministers, assisted by a Permanent Representatives Council on ambassadorial level. Social and cultural aspects of the Brussels Treaty were handed to the Council of Europe to avoid duplication of responsibilities within Europe.
A Parliamentary Assembly (composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) supervise the work of the Council, but it does not have any obligations on the Council. The Assembly of WEU is a consultative institution.
Western European Armaments Group (WEAG) was established as a forum for armaments cooperation in 1976 with the aim of creating a European Armaments Agency. 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. 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. These agencies were taken over by the European Defence Agency. Other transferred bodies include the Institute for Security Studies and the Satellite Centre.
Category:Western European Union Category:1954 establishments Category:2011 disestablishments
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
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Name | Rainhard Fendrich |
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Rainhard Jürgen Fendrich |
Alias | Raini |
Born | February 27, 1955 |
Origin | Vienna, Austria |
Instrument | Guitar |
Genre | Pop, folk rock |
Occupation | Musician, composer, actor, entertainer |
Years active | 1980–present |
Associated acts | Austria3 |
Url | rainhard-fendrich.at |
Rainhard Jürgen Fendrich (born 27 February 1955 in Vienna) is an Austrian singer, composer, entertainer, and actor. He is one of the most successful Austropop musicians. His lyrics are written in Viennese German, and he is very popular in Austria, but less in other German-speaking countries, and by far less known in non-German speaking ones. His song from 1990, "I am from Austria" (its lyrics are, except for this one line, in Viennese German) is still popular in Austria.
He has acted in the musicals Die Gräfin vom Naschmarkt (1980), Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas, 1982), Chicago (Billy Flynn, 1998), and he played Jeff Zodiak in the musical Wake Up, which he co-wrote with Harold Faltermeyer (and which failed) in 2002 (all of those in Vienna, Austria). He has also appeared in numerous Austrian and German movies.
As an entertainer, he followed Rudi Carrell in the ARD TV-show Herzblatt, was the first host of Die Millionenshow (the Austrian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and for a while had his own TV comedy show, Nix Is Fix, produced by ORF and ARD.
Fendrich received the Austrian Golden Romy award for TV entertainment. In 1994, 1995 and 2000, he was nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Award four times before winning it in 2002. Austrian "NEWS" magazine readers voted him "Best Entertainer of the Decade" in same year.
Besides working as a solo artist, he gathered, in 1997, the Austrian singer-guitarists (also his friends) Georg Danzer and Wolfgang Ambros for one single beneficial concert in favour of homeless people. Their success was overwhelming, and the three individualists showed up on stage as Austria3 from that day, until they decided to stop that project in 2006. However, at Georg Danzer's comeback concert in Vienna on 16 April 2007, they met again for a few songs, and even "thought" in public about re-uniting in 2008. This can not happen, as Danzer died of lung cancer on 21 June 2007.
The concert on Donauinselfest which Fendrich gave "instead and for Georg Danzer" who a few weeks before the event had to refuse because of his rapidly progressing disease, attracted 200.000 fans on 23 June 2007.
In April 2006, he was observed by Vienna police buying cocaine. He admitted to have taken the drug for 15 years and stated to be "glad that this came to an end". The artist went to drug rehab immediately thereafter, but was however fined € 37.000 in May, 2006. This had no perceptible influence on his popularity.
Category:1955 births Category:people from Vienna Category:Austrian male singers Category:Austrian composers Category:Austrian actors Category:Proofreaders Needed Category:Austro-Bavarian language
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
---|---|
Name | Wolfgang Ambros |
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Wolfgang Ambros |
Alias | Die Numma Ans vom Wienerwoid |
Born | March 19, 1952 |
Origin | Wolfsgraben, Austria |
Instrument | Guitar |
Genre | PopFolk rockBlues |
Occupation | Musician, composer, singer-songwriter |
Years active | 1971- |
Associated acts | Austria3 |
Url | Wolfgang Ambros |
Past members | Wolfgang AmbrosGeorg Danzer†Rainhard Fendrich |
His musical styles are pop-rock and sometimes blues-elements. His first LP Es lebe der Zentralfriedhof was very controversial, because many critics accused him of copying and plagiarizing Georg Danzer.
Ambros also released 3 cover albums (including songs by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Hans Moser. His latest album Steh grod (2006) is very successful.
In the 1980s Ambros sang together with André Heller. One of his biggest concerts took place at the Wiener Weststadion. Another one on the Kitzsteinhorn was the highest place a rock concert ever took place.
There were also cooperative efforts with the Viennese blues-musicians Harry Stampfer, Hans Thessink, Günter Dzikowski and Dj kidpariz.
In 2005 he released die Album Der alte Sünder – Ambros singt Moser, which was a cover album recorded with Christian Kolonovits.
In 2002 he won the AMADEUS Austrian Music Award.
Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Austrian male singers Category:Austrian musicians Category:Wienerlied
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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