Brussels, 08/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the Western European Union, to be held in Marseilles on 13 November, chaired by the French Ministers for Foreign Affairs Hubert Vedrine and Defence Alain Richard, will be the last of its genre, and the Marseilles Declaration which will conclude the work will mark the end of the WEU as it has hitherto been, and describe the details for the setting up of a residual organisation essentially intended to ensure the respect of obligations stemming from Article V and IX of the Modified Brussels Treaty (mutual assistance in case of aggression and obligation to present an annual report to its Parliamentary Assembly), as well as the continuation of the activities of the WEAG (Western European Armaments Group).
Work will begin in Marseilles Monday morning with a meeting of the WEAG, under Greek Presidency (the President of the Armaments Group is not the same as that of the WEU Council). Then, still in the morning, the foreign ministers of the ten full members of the EU will have a meeting in which they will discuss the new institutional configuration of the WEU and the setting up of its residual structure. This will be followed by a joint meeting of foreign and defence ministers, among twenty-one (the ten full members, the five EU observers - i.e. the four neutral countries plus Denmark - and the six associate members: non-EU NATO Allies - Turkey, Norway, Iceland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic), In the presence of WEU Secretary General Javier Solana and NATO's Lord Robertson. In the afternoon, the foreign and defence ministers will meet among twenty-eight (with the six countries applicants for EU and NATO membership, the associated partners), and, having heard the President of the WEU Assembly, Klaus Buehler, they will adopt the Marseilles Declaration and hear a statement by the future Presidency of the WEU, which will be Dutch (it will not this time coincide with that of the EU, which will be held by Sweden, which is not a full WEU member).
Among the questions to be settled regarding the residual structure of the WEU is that of the Military Staff Headquarters, which will continue to be operational until the setting up of an European Union Military Staff Headquarters. Meanwhile, the WEU Military Staff Headquarters will, in particular, have to continue to be able to conduct a new joint military exercise with NATO (following this year's CMX - CRISEX 2000) and coordinate ongoing operations: mine-clearance operation in Croatia, that should end in May 2001, and the police operation in Albania, which reaches its end on 31 December of this year, but that should be extended and then passed on to the EU (but this passage is not likely to occur before the spring of next year, several issues still having to be settled, including the institutional arrangements for the participation of non European countries in this operation, to which 25 countries currently contribute.).
As for the WEU Satellite Centre in Torrejon, in Spain, and the WEU Security Studies Institute, in Paris, they will become European Union agencies, but this transfer should take a few more months yet. In the transition phase that is beginning, the Institute could in particular take on the activities of the Transatlantic Forum, currently chaired by Germany, which will then be transferred to the EU (WEU sources stress the importance of maintaining a Euro-American dialogue that should, moreover, be an inclusive dialogue, covering all the 28 countries of the WEU).
In its statement, the future Dutch Presidency should say, in Marseilles, that, in the first half of 2001, there may no longer be the usual type of WEU Ministerial Council, but, rather, a Council with a limited agenda that would be held "back-to-back" with the EU Council, in Brussels. As for the Assembly, it will continue to hold two sessions a year, in particular continuing its "strategic reflection on European defence" (see EUROPE of 19 May, page 5, for the proposal made in Oporto by the WEU Assembly over its own development).
Finally, the Marseilles Council will also adopt a social plan for WEU staff, which currently comprises 92 people and which will later be reduced (recently, 23 people have already left the WEU Secretariat, 14 of whom have gone to NATO, 2 to the European Commission, and one to the European Parliament).