Defence assembly likely to be excluded from Convention

Date: 07/02/02

By David Cronin

EUROPE'S only assembly solely dedicated to defence issues is expressing unease over its likely exclusion from the work of the new Convention on revising the EU's treaties.

The Western European Union's (WEU) parliamentary assembly has asked Convention chief Valéry Giscard d'Estaing if he could grant the 187-member body observer status.

But its vice-president, Wolfgang Behrendt, said he had not yet received a reply.

The German deputy argues that the assembly should be involved in the Convention because of suggestions that the EU should have a beefed-up security role.

Spain, current holder of the rotating Union presidency, is in favour of incorporating the 'mutual defence guarantee' made by all ten of the WEU's full members into EU's treaties.

This binds all of those countries to a pledge of protecting any one of them that comes under attack.

Behrendt acknowledged that getting the EU to adopt that guarantee could prove difficult because four of its members - Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden - remain militarily non-aligned.

'This would be a matter of controversial discussion,' he said. 'So we would favour permanent cooperation with the Convention.'

But senior EU officials believe Giscard d'Estaing will not accept the assembly's appeal.

Last December's Laeken summit endorsed a list of several bodies that could be recognised as the Convention's observers. These included the European Ombudsman, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee. But the WEU assembly was omitted.

'The composition of the Convention was laid down in the Laeken declaration,' said one official. 'The people from the WEU should read that.'

Meanwhile, there is growing concern in Oslo that the EU's decision to subsume most of the WEU's structures will give it a lesser say in shaping Europe's future defence policy.

A spokeswoman for Norway, one of the WEU's six 'associate' members, said that it is in an 'awkward position' because the EU has decided to take over the funding of the assembly's work.

'It is not requesting any finance from non-EU WEU countries,' she added.

'We're worried about that. Our logic is that if we are not contributing financially, then we will not be taken seriously.'

The Western European Union's parliamentary assembly is expressing unease over its likely exclusion from the work of the new Convention on revising the EU's treaties.