WEU: Armed rapid reaction police force
01 May 1998
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) agreed at its six-monthly meeting in Paris in June that its council of member countries ministers should: a) ask each member country to put forward police officers experienced enough to lead advance reconnaissance parties; b) establish a new policy sub-group for "police missions"; c) provide for the rapid deployment of specialised police forces for international crises; d) ask member countries to commit specialised police units, answerable to the WEU, to be the core of a rapid reaction force.
The arguments for creating a "regional" armed rapid reaction police force to act in central and eastern Europe were that UN/NATO troops were ill-equipped to cope with long-term commitments, like in Bosnia, where there was a need for a non-military force to remain after troops withdraw. SFOR in Bosnia, it is argued, has found itself having to undertake the supervision of elections and maintaining order. This task, the US has argued, is more suited to an 800-strong EU police force. One of the reports considered by the meeting of the Assembly said: "Maintenance of public order, riot control and the fight against terrorism are tasks which demand a great deal of specific training and knowledge and these are not usually understood by military forces or basic police forces."
This decision may lead to the creation of an EU para-military police force drawn from existing specialist squads at the national level.
The WEU has found a new lease of life following the Amsterdam Treaty which in Article 17 of the revised Treaty on European Union gives it an enhanced role. The future possibility of integrating the WEU into the European Union is provided for.
The WEU was founded in 1954 as a western european military alliance alongside NATO - its member states are: Belgium (1954), France (1954), Germany (1954), Greece (1995), Italy (1954), Luxembourg (1954), Netherlands (1954), Portugal (1990), Spain (1990) and the UK (1954). All of these countries are also members of NATO, as are the WEU's Associate Members - Iceland (1992), Norway (1992) and Turkey (1992). Denmark, a member of NATO, has observer status with the WEU. Four EU member states are not in NATO - Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden - they too just have observer status with the WEU. Ten central and eastern countries have an even lesser status as "Associate Partners". Only the 10 full EU member states have decision-making powers.
A little-noticed report from the WEU's Council of Ministers in Madrid on 14 November 1995 demonstrates the growing ambitions of the WEU (it is now on the internet
here). Just as European security and intelligence services have had to adjust to new "threats" to maintain themselves so the WEU also sees a wider "peacekeeping" role for itself. "Organised crime" and drugs have, the reports says, a potential to "provoke both internal instability and to affect relations between countries" (para 56). "Uncontrolled or illegal immigration" has "become an issue relevant to European stability and security", moreover:
"illegal migration can pose a threat to internal security and affect law and order in our societies (links with organised crime, "importation" of political conflicts elsewhere) (quotes in original; para 59)."
"International terrorism and organised crime" are also referred to (para 149).
The seat of the WEU Council and Secretariat was moved from London to Brussels in 1993 together with the "Planning Cell" which includes an "Intelligence Section".
Rapid reaction - the security and defence arm of the European Union is set to set up a special police force to tackle trouble spots, Keith Nuthall, "International Police Review", July/August 1998, p31; European Security: a Common Concept of 27 WEU Countries, Extraordinary Council of Ministers, 14 November 1995, Madrid.