Assembly of The Western European Union - Structure

Structure

The former EU High Representative Javier Solana, who was responsible for the CSDP (then known as the ESDP, was at the same time the WEU Secretary-General, thus creating a link between both organisations at the highest executive level. The last Assembly of WEU President was Robert Walter (UK), who took over from Jean-Pierre Masseret (France, Socialist group) in 2008. The last Secretary General / Clerk to the Assembly was Mr Colin Cameron (UK).

The main interparliamentary work within the Assembly is done by 4 committees:

• The Defence Committee is concerned with European security and defence issues from an operational and military standpoint.
• The Political Committee addresses the political aspects of European security and defence.
• The Technological and Aerospace Committee is concerned with matters pertaining to defence and to cooperation in the field of armaments.
• The Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations is responsible for cooperation with national parliaments and monitors and analyses security and defence debates in national parliaments as well as parliamentary questions put to national governments. It also makes comparative studies and proposes improved benchmarks for government accountability.

The members of the Assembly met twice a year for plenary sessions and throughout the year in committee meetings, conferences and colloquies. Each committee appointed a Rapporteur from among its members, who presented a draft report and recommendation on current security and defence issues to the competent committee. After several debates during which the draft recommendations were often considerably modified, committee members voted on the final texts which were then submitted to the plenary session for amendment and adoption by the Assembly. Assembly Recommendations were sent to the Council, which was obliged to give written replies. Parliamentarians also had the right to put questions to the Council.