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The
Treaty of Brussels (
48-3-17), also referred to as the
Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the
Western Union (WU) between 1948 and 1954, at which it point it was
amended as the
Modified Brussels Treaty (MTB) and served as the
founding treaty of the Western European Union (WEU) until its
termination in 2010. The treaty provided for the organisation of military, economic, social and cultural cooperation among member states, as well as a mutual defence clause.
The treaty was signed on
17 March 1948 by
Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and the
United Kingdom - the members of the Western Union - as an
expansion to the Treaty of Dunkirk, signed
47-3-4 between Britain and France to guard against possible German or Soviet aggression after the end of WW2.
The
need to back up the commitments of the North Atlantic Treaty 49-4-4 with appropriate political and military structures led to the
creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In
December 1950 the parties to the Treaty of Brussels decided to
transfer the headquarters, personnel, and plans of the
Western Union Defence Organisation (WUDO) to
NATO, whose
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) took over responsibility for the defence of Western Europe.
The
establishment of NATO, along with the signing of a
succession of treaties establishing the
Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (
April 1948), the
Council of Europe (
May 1949) and the
European Coal and Steel Community (
April 1951), left the Treaty of Brussels and its Western Union devoid of authority.
The treaty was amended at the
1954 Paris Conference as a result of the failure of the
Treaty establishing the European Defence Community to gain French ratification: The
General Treaty (
German: Deutschlandvertrag) of
1952 formally named the EDC as a prerequisite of the end of Allied occupation of Germany, and there was a desire to include Germany in the Western defence architecture. The
Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT) transformed the Western Union into the Western European Union (WEU), at which point Italy and Germany were admitted. Although the WEU established by the Modified Brussels Treaty was significantly less powerful and ambitious than the original Western Union, German membership of the WEU was considered sufficient for the occupation of the country to end in accordance with the General Treaty.
When the
European Union (EU) gained its own
mutual defence clause upon the entry into force of the
Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the members of the WEU - who were also EU
member states - regarded the WEU as redundant. Consequently the
Modified Treaty of Brussels was terminated on 31 March 2010, followed by the
closure of WEU bodies on 30 June 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Brussels .
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The
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO);
Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord (OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an
intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the
North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. NATO constitutes a system of
collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
NATO's Headquarters are located in
Evere,
Brussels, Belgium, while the
headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near
Mons, Belgium.
Since its founding, the
admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the
original 12 countries to 29. The most recent
member state to be added to NATO is
Montenegro on 5 June 2017. NATO currently recognizes
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Georgia,
North Macedonia and
Ukraine as aspiring members. An additional 21 countries participate in NATO's
Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The
combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes
over 70% of the global total.
Members have expressed their aim to move towards the target defence spending of 2% of GDP by 2024.
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