Brussels, 29/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the Western European Union gathered on 28 June in Brussels at the Ambassador level under the Presidency of the Secretary General Javier Solana, before the end of the Dutch Presidency (which will be succeed on 1 July by the Belgian Presidency, which announced that it too would not hold a ministerial meeting: see EUROPE of 21 July, p.5).
A press release announces that the transfer of the WEU Headquarters (from rue de la Regence to rue de l'Association) and the simultaneous closure of the WEU Military Staff were the last two measures taken in the context of the ending of the organisations responsibility in terms of crisis management. The press release, which underlines that the WEU will begin to play its role of guardian of Article V of the modified Brussels Treaty (mutual assistance), recalls that: - The satellite centre in Torrejon and the Institute for Security Studies in Paris would function under the authority of the EU as of 2002: - the mandate of the WEU Mission of assistance to mine clearance in Croatia (financed by the EU) finishes at the end of November; - on 1 June EU took over the torch of the WEU police mission in Albania, through a Commission cooperation project in the framework of the CARDS programme.