Paris, 25/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The January 2001 issue of the newsletter of the WEU Security Studies Institute recalls that the European Council of Nice confirmed, in the report by the ESDP Presidency, that the Institute will become an agency of the European Union. The newsletter gives the passages of the report that above all specifies that the Swedish Presidency has been invited to implement the necessary measures for the creation, in the form of EU agencies, of a Security Studies Institute (as well as a Satellite Centre). Also, in order to enhance transatlantic dialogue, the Institute will develop activities similar to those carried out today within the WEU Transatlantic Forum.
The newsletter opens with a commentary by Nicole Gnesotto, Director of the Institute, who notes the gap between the "immense progress" made by the EU on defence matters and the "no less spectacular stagnation" of CFSP. In her view, after having militarised the Union, it is now necessary to re-politicise defence, which would essentially allow misunderstandings to be avoided, above all with Turkey. She goes on to say that the more coherence and continuity there is between defence and the CFSP, the less temptation there will be to treat European defence as if it were a military mini organisation, which is new, insular, separate and separable from the Union's common policies. The four-page bulletin also describes the activities of the Institute, which has its main office in Paris, and speaks of Euro-American relations. (Address: 43 Avenue du Président Wilson, 75775 Paris Cedex 16. Website: http: //http://www.weu.int/institute ).