It was revitalised in 1984 on Belgian and French initiative and again in 1992, with the Treaty of Maastricht. [3] These are: Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894–1972) published the Paneuropa manifesto in 1923 which set up the movement of that name. The five original signatories to Western Union (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) were joined by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Italy. The European Union names 11 people[2] as its founding fathers. Two bloody wars had been fought on the continent. The movement held its first Congress in Vienna in 1926. History of the European Union. Even so, the failure to establish a European army through the European Defence Community (EDC: 1952–1954) (1), the integration of the FRG into WEU as a springboard to Bonn’s entry into NATO (in 1955), the settlement of the problem of the Saar, the part played by WEU in the process of joint consultations between the founder States of the European Economic Community and the United Kingdom, not to mention the failure of the Fouchet Plan (1962) (2), were all powerless to prevent the ‘Sleeping Beauty’, the nickname that WEU was given at the time, from fading away into a dormant state. The Western European Union (WEU) welcomes your initiative to include our organization in your consultations on this important matter. The EU grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. Of course, WEU was twice reactivated, but it never really managed to assert itself or to make the idea of a European defence system that did not involve the Americans a reality. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (4) The names were: the interim European Security and Defence Assembly (2000); the interparliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly (2003); the European Security and Defence Assembly (2008) with the words ‘National parliamentarians working together for Europe’s security’ on the spine of its paper-bound reports. France is a semi-presidential republic with a head of government - the prime minister - appointed by the president who is the directly elected head of state. It was also hampered in its operations by individually tailored statuses being devised for its members (even though these favoured relations between NATO and EU Member States, and those countries in the enlarged Europe who were members of or applicants to join one of those two organisations). The non-EU countries of Western Europe are to a significant extent integrated into the EU’s internal market, in particular as concerns the members of the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland, with relations being unparalleled in their scope and depth. The five original signatories to Western Union (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) were joined by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Italy. Thus, Coudenhove-Kalergi is the founder of the first grassroots movement for the European unity. This is a treaty which provides the basis for a vast six-year programme aimed … The Western Bloc, which was known as the Western Europe and comprising of the non-Communist countries, was allied with the NATO against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Western Union (WU), also referred to as the Brussels Treaty Organisation (BTO), was the European military alliance established between France, the United Kingdom (UK) and the three Benelux countries in September 1948 in order to implement the Treaty of Brussels signed in March the same year. It contained the seven countries listed above. The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) played important roles in creating an atmosphere where European integration could take place. In the decades following the devastation and suffering of World War II, the founders of what would become the European Union sought to build a new Europe, “an ever closer union” tied together through economic and political integration, as well as a shared set of values. During the first decade of the 21st century, WEU retained certain functional and judicial attributes which temporarily protected it from disappearing completely, but the decisions which counted were taken elsewhere, in the EU and NATO. In other words, this European organisation was, in turn, ignored, left in suspended animation, and overlooked when a number of tasks which it could actually have carried out were performed using groups of volunteers (Operation Alba in 1997). By the winter of 2009 all 27 EU states had ratified the process, and it took effect. Schuman later served as President of the European Parliament and became notable for advancing European integration. (3) Address by Javier Solana at the second part of the 46th session of the WEU Assembly, Paris, 5 December 2000. This was the case following the Treaty of Lisbon, even though its mutual defence clause is not worded in such a binding manner. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome creates the European … Enlargement of the Union … The Treaty was supplemented and amended by a protocol signed in Paris on 23 October 1954 (the modified Brussels Treaty), setting up Western European Union. It eventually became clear that this strictly European political and military structure could not be made into a substitute for the political integration which had for so long been lacking. Founder. The EU took up the baton with the defence aspects of the Treaty of Nice. At the end of the 1990s, WEU was prevented from pursuing any aim which might overshadow the EU. This was also the time when Spain (in 1990), Portugal (in 1990) and Greece (in 1995) joined WEU. Herman Van Rompuy (b. In the 1950s, six core states founded the EU's predecessor European Communities. It became the means of ‘intergovernmentalising’ the CFSP before being compelled, as it was, to hand over responsibility to an EU which was to define an ESDP of its own, including preferential, direct links with the Atlantic Alliance. This weakening meant that WEU’s Council of Ministers no longer met, its last Secretary-General gave very little of his time to it and certain countries waged a guerrilla campaign to reduce the operating budget of the WEU Parliamentary Assembly. ‘European integration studies’ collection, ‘Oral history of European integration’ collection. European France) and 5 overseas regions. (4) The names were: the interim European Security and Defence Assembly (2000); the interparliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly (2003); the European Security and Defence Assembly (2008) with the words ‘National parliamentarians working together for Europe’s security’ on the spine of its paper-bound reports. The African Union is one of the world's most important intergovernmental organizations. WEU was finally stripped of its substance to a large degree in 2000. The Assembly changed its name several times (4) to make itself more visible by stressing the links between itself, the national parliaments and the question of European defence, while, legally speaking, institutional legitimacy in parliamentary debates concerning the ESDP lay with the EU (via the European Parliament’s subcommittee on security and defence). The statesman Robert Schuman, a qualified lawyer and French foreign minister between 1948 and 1952, is regarded as one of the founding fathers of European unity. L'Union de l'Europe occidentale (UEO ; en anglais : Western European Union, WEU ; en allemand : Westeuropäische Union, WEU) est une organisation européenne de défense et de coopération, fondée par le Traité de Bruxelles modifié dans le cadre plus général des Accords de Paris du 23 octobre 1954. WEU’s future, then, remained uncertain and very exposed. To accede, a state must fulfill the economic and political requirements known as the Copenhagen criteria, which require a candidate to have a democratic, free-market government together with the corresponding freedoms and institutions, and respect for the rule of law. Western European Union (WEU) was born out of the Treaty on Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defence signed in Brussels on 17 March 1948.