L'Union de l'Europe occidentale: Anniversaire du phénix ou chant du cygne?

On 23rd October 2004, the Assembly of the Western European Union took the initiative of organising a series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the modified Brussels treaty. As an offshoot of the European unification process (1948), the armed inter-governmental body representing European security interests (1980), the European security organisation working for the benefit of NATO and for the union (1992), a rubber stamp from NATO (1995), or a residual body in a process of disintegration (2000), the WEU has been the subject of rivalry between those holding strickly European or transatlantic views, and between NATO and the Union, before being largely "broken up" in favour of the latter. this organisation, which was once the catalyst of European defence, is today experiencing uncertainty, largely being ignored by most of the European Union and its CESDP. Having seen a arge number of responsibilities removed, the WEU today continues to possess legal legitimacy with the continued existence of the treaty of Paris from 1954. This guarantees both the continuation of a parliamentary assembly whose existence is based on the creation of some inter-parliamentary body (still to be proposed), acting as an interface between the national parliaments and the European parliament. The pitfalls ahead are numerous, with the WEU torn between certain intergovernmental attempts to have the treaty scrapped, and a European parliament keen to retain exclusive control over defence issues.