Paris, 17/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Military Committee of the Western European Union held a meeting in Paris on 17 October in which the Chiefs-of-Staff of the ten full member States, the five observers (the four neutral EU Members and Denmark) and six Associated members (members of NATO not belonging to the European Union) adopted a "Transition Plan" in view of transforming WEU into a residual organisation, transformation that has to be ratified by the WEU Ministerial meeting in Marseilles, on 13 November.
A press release from French Staff Headquarters (the country currently assuming the Presidency of the WEU for the semester), stipulates that this plan has to enable them to "pass on the baton to a new organisation and, while waiting for the permanent structures of the European Union to take shape, assure continuity in crisis management".
You may recall that, whereas the WEU Satellite Centre of Torrejon, in Spain, and the WEU Institute for Security Studies, in Paris, will be transferred to the European Union at the beginning of 2001, the Western European Union will continue to exist essentially to oversee Article V of the Modified Brussels Treaty (guarantee of mutual assistance in case of armed aggression), with, in Brussels, a much reduced Secretariat (some twenty people) and the Western European Union Armaments Group. The WEU Assembly, with its Secretariat in Paris, will also remain in place (currently, it holds two plenary sessions a year, as well as special meetings, enlarged to its main committees).