Western European Union - a Success or a Failure

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to summarise the history ofthe Western European Union which was dissolved in 2010 from a different perspective that was applied to this organisation so far: without focusing on lofty declarations, so frequent in its development, but looking at the actually accepted legal acts and actually completed actions in Europe. This offers an insight into the European defence integration process as a functional element of a broader process and not an independent global-arena project. This context allows a more moderate assessment of achievement of WEU, perceived often as an entirely unsuccessful organisation. The approach I propose the Western European Union is a self-limiting organisation which acts only as a supplementation of greater and more significant projects, but an organisation which in effect achieved its objective as defined by interests of its member states.