The Western European Union, set up in 1954 to combat the threat posed by the Soviet Union, has been dissolved.
The announcement was made by Spain, holder of the union’s current presidency, on Wednesday. The day before, the United Kingdom announced its intention to leave the union.
The WEU was one of the earliest attempts to bring about a practical European cooperation. The ten founding member states – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom – promised each other military assistance in the event of an attack. However, the later emergence of NATO effectively sidelined the organization.
The WEU did undertake several missions in, for example, the Persian Gulf and the Balkans, and there was talk of it growing into the military arm of the European Union.
But in its statement on Wednesday, Spain noted that the promise to provide military assistance is also enshrined in the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, which became force in December 2009. For this reason, the presidential statement noted, “the WEU has therefore fulfilled its historic role.”
The offices of the WEU in Brussels and Paris must close by June 2011.
