Western European Union Union de l'Europe occidentale
Defensive alliance
1954–2011 →
Flag
Members • Associate members • Observers • Associate partners
Capital	Brussels
Political structure	International organisation
Historical era	Cold War
- Treaty of Brussels	17 March 1948
- London and Paris Accords	21 October 1954
- Treaty of Lisbon	1 December 2009
- Abolition	30 June 2011
Today part of	European Union

History of the European Union
This article is part of a series
Timeline Pre-1945 ideas 1945–1957 1958–1972 1973–1993 1993–2004 2004–present
Organisation European Communities (1958-2009) European Coal and Steel Community (1952-2002) European Economic Community (1958-1993) European Atomic Energy Community (1958-present) European Community (1993-2009) Justice and Home Affairs (1993-2003) Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (2003-2009) Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar (1993-2009) Western European Union (1954-2010)
Treaties Treaty of Paris Treaty of Rome Merger Treaty Single European Act Treaty of Maastricht Treaty of Amsterdam Treaty of Nice Treaty of Lisbon
Commissions Hallstein Commission 1958 Rey Commission 1967 Malfatti Commission 1970 Mansholt Commission 1972 Ortoli Commission 1973 Jenkins Commission 1977 Thorn Commission 1981 Delors Commission 1985 Santer Commission 1994 Prodi Commission 1999 Barroso Commission 2004
Topics History of Europe History of the euro History of enlargement (1995 - 2004 - 2007) List of presidents
European Union Portal v t e

The Western European Union (WEU; French: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO) was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels (1954), an amended version of the original 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU was established by seven Western European nations during the Cold War.

Since the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions have been transferred to the Common Security and Defence Policy which is being framed for the geographically larger and more comprehensive European Union. 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, with all the remaining WEU's activities to be ceased within 15 months. On 30 June 2011 the WEU was officially declared defunct.^[1]

Organisation[link]

The WEU was headquartered in Brussels, with a staff of 65 and an annual budget of €13.4 million.^[2] 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 ambassadorial level. Social and cultural aspects of the Brussels Treaty were handed to the Council of Europe to avoid duplication of responsibilities within Europe.^[3]

A Parliamentary Assembly (composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council 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.

Western European Armaments Group[link]

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.^[4]

Western European Armaments Organisation[link]

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.^[5] These agencies were taken over by the European Defence Agency. Other transferred bodies include the Institute for Security Studies and the Satellite Centre.

Eurofor[link]

On 15 May 1995, the Council of Ministers of the WEU met in Lisbon. During this meeting a declaration of the creation of the European 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.^[6]

Participating states[link]

The Western European Union had 10 member countries, 6 associate member countries, 5 observer countries and 7 associate partner countries. On 14 June 2001, then-WEU President Solana stated that there was no foreseeable reason to change the status of the non member countries in the organisation.

History[link]

Reconstruction of the organisation's rarely used 1949 flag.

The 9-star design that was used until 1993.

Treaty of Brussels[link]

The Treaty of Brussels was signed by the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands on 17 March 1948. It was a mutual intergovernmental self defense treaty which also promoted economic, cultural and social collaboration.

As a result of the failure of the European Defence Community on 23 October 1954 the WEU was established by the Paris Agreements with the incorporation of Italy and West Germany. On this occasion it was renamed the Western European Union. The signatories of the Paris Agreements clearly stated their three main objectives in the preamble to the modified Brussels Treaty:

• To create in Western Europe a firm basis for European economic recovery;
• To afford assistance to each other in resisting any policy of aggression;
• To promote the unity and encourage the progressive integration of Europe.

The defence efforts resulting from the Brussels Treaty took form as the Western Union Defence 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.

Western Union Defence Organization[link]

Transfers to the EU[link]

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).^[7]

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 to have given the role of collective defence to NATO^{[citation needed]}. The Treaty of Lisbon has provisions for cooperation between the EU and both NATO (including the Berlin Plus agreement) and the WEU.^[8][9] However the defence commitment, of Article 4 of the Brussels Treaty, has not been subsumed.^[10] 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.^[11]

A summary of some of the moves towards a merger of the WEU into the EU:

• On 20 November 1999, Javier Solana, who is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU, 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.
• The Petersberg tasks, declared by the WEU in 1992, were incorporated in 1997 into the Treaty of Amsterdam of the EU, forming the basis of the Common Security and Defence Policy which frames a common policy to deal with humanitarian and rescue, peacekeeping and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.
• The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC), both established to function under the EU's CFSP pillar, are 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.^[12]

Abolition[link]

In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon took over the WEU's mutual defence clause.^[1] There was much discussion about what to do with the WEU following the introduction of Lisbon, including plans to scrap it.^[2] On 30 March 2010 in a Written Ministerial Statement UK's Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant gave notice that the UK intended to withdraw from the Western European Union within a year.^[13] On 31 March 2010 the German Foreign Affairs Ministry announced Germany's intention to withdraw from the Modified Brussels Treaty.^[14] During 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.^[15] On 30 June 2011 the WEU ceased officially to exist.

See also[link]

European Union portal

• List of Secretaries General of the Western European Union
• List of military alliances
• Collective defence
• Collective security
• Exercise Verity
• Flag of the Western European Union
• Franco-British Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty and Downing Street Declaration
• European Defence Agency
• Western Europe

References[link]

External links[link]

• WEU official web site
• Frozen version of the WEU Assembly's website
• History of NATO – the Atlantic Alliance - UK Government site
• the Western European Union European NAvigator
• WEU evolution: The presentation of the Eurocorps-Foreign Legion concept at the European Parliament in June 2003

v t e Western European Union topics Flag Assembly Western Union Defence Organization London and Paris Conferences Secretary-General Treaty of Brussels

Rainhard Fendrich
Fendrich in concert with Austria3 in 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Rainhard Jürgen Fendrich
Also known as	Raini
Born	(1955-02-27) 27 February 1955 (age 57)
Origin	Vienna, Austria
Genres	Pop, folk rock
Occupations	Musician, composer, actor, entertainer
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1980–present
Associated acts	Austria3
Website	rainhard-fendrich.at (German)

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.

Life[link]

Rainhard, called "Raini" by his friends, attended a Catholic boarding school. By his own admission he was a lazy pupil, and shy. He got his first guitar on his 15th birthday, and taught himself how to play it and started writing songs. He later began to study law, but soon gave up and took several jobs in order to finance his education as a professional actor and singer.

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.

Donauinselfest, Vienna, 2007

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^[3] 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.^[4]

Divorce and drugs[link]

Fendrich was married to Andrea Sator from 1984–2004. Their "dirty" divorce had considerable publicity. The couple has two sons, Lucas and Florian. A daughter, Theresa-Valentina, had died as a baby in 1989. Lucas started a musician's career, but as of 2007, without much success. From 2004, Fendrich lived with singer and performer Ina Nadine Wagler and stayed mainly on his finca in Majorca.

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.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Live albums[link]

Best-Ofs and compilations[link]

Austria 3[link]

• 1998: Austria3 - Live (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)
• 1998: Austria3 - Live Vol. 2 (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)
• 2000: Austria3 - Die Dritte (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)

DVDs[link]

• 2002: Ein Saitensprung
• 2004: Jetzt

Singles[link]

• "Little Drummer Boy" with Eric Minsk, and "Stille Nacht" with Andrew Edge.

References[link]