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The objectives of the
WEAG are the following:
More efficient use of resources
through, inter alia, increased harmonization of
requirements;
The opening up of national defence
markets to cross-border competition;
To strengthen the European defence
technological and industrial base;
cooperation in research and development
The need for progress towards
these objectives has become more pressing in recent
years because of reductions in defence budgets and the
increasing pace of technological change. Industry is
responding by downsizing, restructuring and by rationalization
through mergers and joint ventures or exiting from the
market. Governments are also responding to ensure that
defence requirements can be met in the longer term through
access to affordable technology at the necessary level
of capability. They are working together to intensify
cooperation in the context of the developing European
defence identity.
In
1976, the Defence Ministers of the European NATO nations
(except Iceland) established a forum for armaments cooperation,
the Independent European Programme Group (IEPG). The
Declaration agreed by the WEU Ministers in Maastricht
on 10 December 1991 called for further examination of
the possibilities for enhanced cooperation in the field
of armaments, with the aim of creating a European Armaments
Agency. At their meeting in Bonn in December 1992, the
Defence Ministers of the 13 countries of the IEPG decided
upon the transfer of the functions of the IEPG to the
WEU.
Furthermore they agreed six basic principles for the
transfer, principal among which were:
All 13 nations should be entitled
to participate fully and with the same rights
and responsibilities, in any European armaments
cooperation forum.
There should be a single European
armaments cooperation forum.
Armaments cooperation in Europe
should be managed by the National Armaments Directors
of all the 13 nations, who will be accountable
to the Ministers of Defence of those governments.
The existing links with NATO and
EDIG should be maintained.
At the meeting of the WEU Council of
Ministers in Rome in May 1993, the Defence Ministers
of the IEPG reaffirmed the six key principles on which
armaments cooperation should be based, and in particular
that all decisions on these matters within the WEU framework
should be taken by the 13 nations. They agreed on a
number of organizational aspects of the transfer which
were subsequently adopted formally by the Council. Since
that meeting, the WEU armaments cooperation forum has
been known as the Western European Armaments Group (WEAG).
At their meeting in Marseille in November
2000, WEAG Defence Ministers agreed to the accession
to WEAG full membership of six new nations: Austria,
the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.
WEAG now numbers 19 full members each enjoying the same
rights and responsibilities.
