SUBJECT:  The European Union and the Western European Union

QUESTION:   Please explain the difference between the European Union and the Western European Union (the ten-nation intelligence and military arm of the European Union).

ANSWER:

THE EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union (EU) is a union of twenty-seven independent states [and heading to several more] based on the European Communities and founded to enhance political, economic and social co-operation. Formerly known as European Community (EC) or European Economic Community (EEC).

Date of foundation: 1st November 1993. New members since 1st January 1995: Austria, Finland, Sweden.  New members as of 1 May 2004 : Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia, the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta.

Member states (27 now):

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom

Candidate countries:
Croatia
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Turkey

The official European Union languages are:  Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. 

WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION (WEU)

A Western European defense alliance, incorporated into the European Union by the Treaty on European Union.

WEU is an organization, which was set up in 1948 for the purposes of cooperation on defense and security. It consists of 28 countries with four different types of status. Member States, associate members, observers and associate partners. The EU countries have the status of Member State (except Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden, which have observer status).

The Treaty on European Union raised WEU to the rank of an "integral part of the development of the Union", while preserving its institutional autonomy, and gave it the task of elaborating and implementing decisions and actions, which have defense implications.

The Western European Union has existed since 1954 and today includes 10 European countries Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. It has a Council and Secretariat formerly located in London and based in Brussels since January 1993, and a Parliamentary Assembly in Paris. The WEU has its origins in the Brussels Treaty of Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defense of 1948, signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

RESOURCES

http://europa.eu/index_en.htm ----The European Union web site

http://www.assembly-weu.org/en/accueil.php  ----The Assembly of the WEU

http://www.nato.int/docu/handbook/2001/hb1504.htm ----NATO document on the WEU

http://www.weu.int The WEU