Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | The defense and security dimension of Europe was a long time in the creation, starting out in 1948 and traversing numerous deadends, failures, futile declarations, and fizzling effirts. The new attempt to launch the WEU in 1984-85 was a historic milestone and, in spite of the subsequent ups and downs, has largely succeeded and gathered strengh. The Atlantic Alliance now recognizes the WEU - since the «Declaration of Rome on Peace and Cooperation on November 8, 1991 - as the defense component of the European unification process, and as a means of consolidating the European pillar of the Alliance. The Maastricht Treaty of February 7, 1992, also made it «anintegral part of the European Union's development». In the meantime, the organization has expanded and now totals ten full members, three associated members, five observers, and nine associated partners. The major challenge the WEU now faces is to become operational. As an integral part of the European Union, it must assume its role in implementing this Unions defense. This raises four categories of issues, by order of importance : • the WEU's relation with the European Union; •. its relation with the Atlantic Alliance and NATO, • the development of a common European Union defense system; • the means the WEU's has for contributing to this common defense. Much remains to be done in each of these fields. In this regard, it is enlightening-to compare current and past achievements with the gaps that remain to be filled. These will be the issues that the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference will have at least to consider and to act upon, for those questions coming within tts powers. The IGC's conclusions on these questions will largely condition the WEU's future role in implementing the European Union's common defense. |
