11/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Director of the Institute of Security Studies of the European Union (formerly the Western European Union), Nicole Gnesotto, noted in the first quarterly newsletter published by the EU Institute in February 2002 that on 1 January, the Institute became the Institute of Security Studies of the European Union. After the last quarter of 2001 devoted to negotiating an entire body of legal, administrative, social and financial measures, the Institute is now up and running as an autonomous Community body, now funded by the fifteen Member States, but perfectly independent in terms of the orientation of its research and its outcome, she added. Ms Gnesotto points out that the Institute has been given the task (under the Belgian Presidency, Ed) of compiling a White Paper on European Defence. (Address: 43 avenue du Président Wilson, F-75775 Paris Cedex 16. e-mail: institute@uiss-eu-org)