Agency seeks a role as the EU contemplates common defence

Date: 09/11/1995

ONE might have thought that talk of ensuring the peace in former Yugoslavia would bring the Western European Union (WEU) on to the radar screen of European initiatives, but the little-known agency seems destined to remain in the shadows.

As NATO takes control of peace implementation and the European Union fights for leadership of Bosnia's reconstruction, both seem to have forgotten the WEU. Yet it seems not to mind.

Instead, the agency intended to be the EU's military arm is keeping its head down, quietly searching for its role in future European defence policies. “We are in an introspective period,” WEU sources say, adding that their Secretary-General José Cutileiro is “keeping his house in order” and looking for options. “The Yugoslavia crisis arrived a bit early.”

The WEU, with a staff of 80 and a 'planning cell' of 40 in Brussels, a security studies institute in Paris and a satellite centre in Torrejón, has no power of initiative and is awaiting orders from its two masters, not sure which one will take it over.